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THOUGHTS 



PRESENT COLLEGIATE SYSTEM 



UNITED STATES 



FRANCIS WAYLAND 



BOSTON: 
GOULD, KENDALL & LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET. 

1842. 



L l\-'^ 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1842; 

By Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



//^/ 



PREFACE. 

The following pages are submitted to the public 
with great diffidence because they propose changes ; 
and the author has lived too long to be a passionate 
admirer of innovation. Let it however be re- 
membered that he merely suggests the points to 
^e aimed at where alterations are to be made ; 
leaving the time and manner and degree of altera- 
tion to the decision of those whose duty it is to 
judge of the circumstances in each particular case. 
Should he have done no more than direct attention 
to the questions here discussed, the labor which he 
has bestowed will not have been wholly mis-spent. 
These pages have been written amidst frequent 
interruptions arising from pressing Collegiate en- 
gagements, as well as from unusual public anxiety. 
They have been printed at so great a distance from 
home, that the author has been unable to revise 
the proofs with all the care that he could wish. 
With all their imperfections, he offers them as" 
an humble contribution to the cause of Collegiate 
Education. 

Brown University ^ August 1, 1842. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE 
OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM i 



CHAPTER H. 



THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION IN THE 
UNITED STATES 18 

i. Of the Visit orial Power .... 22 

2. Of the Executive Officers .... 25 

3. Of the Responsibility Assumed ... 28 

4. Of the Course of Study .... 32 



CHAPTER HI. 



OF THE DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE EDUCA- 
TION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH 
IT MAY BE IMPROVED 43 

Sect. 1. Of the Visitorial Power .... 43 

Sect. 2. Of the Faculty, or Officers of Instruction 62 

Sect. 3. Of Collegiate Education ... 76 

Sect. 4. Of College Discipline . . . .112 



VI 



CHAPTER. IV. 

OF SOME PREVALENT ERRORS IN REGARD TO COLLEGIATE 
EDUCATION 132 

CHAPTER V. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS 

i. Corporations or Boards of Visitors 

2. Of the Organization of our Colleges 

3. Of the Officers of Colleges 

4. Of the Discipline of our Colleges 

5. Of Premiums 



150 
151 
153 
156 
157 
159 



THOUGHTS 

ON THE IMPROVEMENT OF 

COLLEGIATE EDUCATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT; ATTEMPTS TO IMPROVE 
OUR COLLEGIATE SYSTEM. 

The opinions at present entertained on the subject 
of education afford us a decisive proof that the 
movement of civilization is onward. Through- 
out all protestant nations, the obligation of the 
community at large to make provision for the in- 
struction of the young, is very commonly admit- 
ted. Nor is this conviction confined to those 
forms of social organization which more closely 
resemble our own. On the contrary the almost 
unlimited monarchy of Prussia has been foremost 
in this good work. France is laboring with 
zeal and efficiency in the same cause. Great 
Britain has already made a good beginning and 
will doubtless before long do something worthy 
of the rank which it holds among civilized 
nations ; while, In our own country, the constitu- 
1 



tion of our General Government is founded 
upon the presumption that every man is possessed 
of some degree of education ; and every State in 
the Union acknowledges its obligation to provide 
the means by which every citizen shall be taught 
the rudiments of knowledge, at least so far as to 
reveal to him the treasures of science in his own 
language, and place in his hands the power of in- 
definitely improving himself. 

I have remarked that this fact denotes the pro- 
gress of our race in the career of civilization. It 
teaches us that the principles of benevolence are 
becoming better known, and that the obligations 
of benevolence are also more widely acknowl- 
edged. He who is willing to spend his property 
for the purpose of elevating the intellectual char- 
acter of his remotest fellow citizen is surely a bet- 
ter man than he who cares for the improvement 
of no being beyond the circle of his own family. 
The nation which has risen from the low level of 
individual aggrandizement to the high ground of 
universal philanthropy has presented a new claim 
to our grateful veneration. It shows that every 
man has come to entertain a more heartfelt re- 
spect and a profounder love for his brother, that 
the fountain of good-will has gushed up from a 
deeper recess in his bosom, and that the stream is 
fresher, purer and more abundant. Charity is al- 
ways lovely ; but when it penetrates the very sub- 
stance of a whole society, and becomes an essen- 
tial element of national character, without losing 
aught of its beauty, it partakes largely of the 
sublime. 



The increasing attention to the general diffusion 
of the means of education shows us also that 
mankind are growing wiser as well as better. It 
is a convincing proof that the views which once 
were peculiar to far sighted and meditative men 
have now become common to the whole commu- 
nity ; that, instead of contending with evils as they 
throng upon us on every side, we are resolved to 
dry up the sources from which they emanate ; 
that, extending our views beyond the narrow limits 
of the present, we are seeking to learn lessons 
from the past and are reaching forward to wield 
for purposes of good the destinies of the future. 
It is thus alone that we can lay deep and broad 
the foundations of the social fabric and render 
certain the progress of men in virtue and intelli- 
gence. It is thus that goodness becomes so 
nearly allied to wisdom, and this alliance is the 
more closely cemented, as wisdom is more pro- 
found and goodness more intense and more 
universal. 

It may I suppose be taken for granted that the 
settled policy of the United States is to furnish 
the means for obtaining a common English educa- 
tion to every citizen, and to improve that educa- 
tion from time to time without any assignable 
limit. It may then be hoped that within a short 
time every American citizen will be able to read, 
write, and keep accounts, and that at no very dis- 
tant period he will also be familiar with all the 
more important branches of elementary knowl- 
edge. Our resources must be strangely misap- 



plied, and our efforts cursed with suicidal blind- 
ness, if these anticipations be not to a considera- 
ble degree realized within the experience of the 
present generation. 

It is too obvious to require extended remark 
that the universal diffusion of the means of com- 
mon education cannot be accomplished without 
creating a great demand for education of a higher 
grade. If a population of five millions of chil- 
dren and young persons are to be taught, we shall 
need more than an hundred thousand teachers to 
instruct them. Our common schools will also be 
almost worthless unless they be well taught. If 
teachers are ignorant, the office of teacher will 
soon sink into contempt. Our schools instead of 
being filled with pupils from every class of soci- 
ety, as they ought to be, will contain only the 
children of vagiants and mendicants. They will 
lose all favor with the yeomanry of the country, 
who will soon tire of supporting an institution 
from which their children can derive no benefit. 
Thus the common school system would prove a 
failure and all our efforts to promote its success 
become abortive. It is manifest then, that if a 
system of general education be adopted, it can 
only be sustained by providing a competent 
supply of well instructed teachers. And if it be 
asked how high should be the standard of attainment 
for persons of this profession, I answer the same 
as that for persons of every other profession. 
There can be no reason assigned why the instructor 
of a neighborhood, he to whom is committed the 



office of forming the minds of our children, should 
not be as well educated and intelligent a man as 
our Lawyer, our Physician or our Clergyman. 

I by no means suppose the whole duty of a 
teacher to be fulfilled by the performance of the 
labors of the school room. If a suitable person 
be engaged for this office, and if the station be 
rendered permanent and sufficiently attractive by 
the social consideration which properly belongs 
to it, a multitude of indirect benefits will naturally 
follow. Such an instructor would be the friend 
and companion of his pupils after the relation 
of master and scholar had terminated. He would 
encourage and direct the studies of those who 
wished to pursue their investigations by themselves. 
He would cultivate science and stimulate his 
neighbors to literary acquisition by the delivery of 
lectures, the formation of libraries and every other 
means of popular improvement. In this manner a 
class of professional men would be raised up among 
us whose influence would be felt most benignly over 
every class of society, and of whose labors the 
benefit would be incalculable. Such a system 
therefore, in order to be in any eminent degree 
successful, involves the necessity of a class of 
higher seminaries, seminaries capable of teaching 
teachers, in other words institutions for profes- 
sional education. 

Besides, I suppose it self evident that no 
nation can derive the benefit which God intended 
from the intellect which he has conferred upon 
it, unless all that intellect, of what sort soever 



6 

it be, have the means of full and adequate devel- 
opment. The rare and more precious gifts of 
God are surely not the only ones that are to be 
thrown away as useless. The gigantic and far 
searching mind which can discover and apply the 
laws of nature, is at least as important to society 
as the more common mind which can only make 
use of the law after it has been discovered. I 
have a strong conviction of the importance to a 
nation of the labors of its ship builders and 
machinists ; but I ask would they have clothed 
the civilized world with garments, and subjected 
the ocean to steam, and peopled the valley of the 
Mississippi with nations without the directing 
genius of Arkwright, and Watt, and Whitney, 
and Fulton. The army of Italy which annihilat- 
ed in rapid succession legion after legion of 
the veterans of Austria, was lying in its encamp- 
ments, ill-fed, cowering, despairing and almost 
disbanded, until it was roused into energy by the 
unrivalled genius of the Emperor Napoleon. 
I honor the yeomanry of my country. I would 
confide in their integrity and good sense in prefer- 
ence to those of any men upon earth, but 
of what avail would be the trial by jury had there 
been no Washingtons and Franklins and Madisons 
to frame our constitution, and no Jays and 
Marshalls and Storys to unfold the principles of 
eternal justice, and hold steadily before the eyes of 
men the light of universal law. And thus must it 
be always. Whatever be the form of government, 
the very existence of society supposes that offices 



must exist, demanding the highest order of in- 
tellect, cultivated by thorough discipline, and 
enlarged and ripened by profound acquaintance 
with whatever of truth the history of past ages 
has revealed for the instruction of man. 

Nor is this necessity for elevated talent rendered 
less imperative by the general diffusion of knowl- 
edge. By this you may enable men the better 
to understand the principles by which they are 
to be governed, and the laws, by obedience to 
which, their condition may be improved ; but 
something more than this is requisite in order to 
enable men to discover or to unfold those hidden 
truths, that lie at the foundation of national 
prosperity. Nay more ; in every condition of 
society there will always be produced native 
talent, vast power of influencing mankind, united 
with restless, aspiring and insatiate ambition. And 
this talent will be unfolded in greater proportion 
as common education is more generally diffused. 
The question then, is not whether such talent 
shall or shall not exist. The only practical 
question is, whether these rare endowments 
shall be cultivated and disciplined and cautioned 
and directed by the lessons of past wisdom, or 
whether they shall be allowed to grow up in 
reckless and headstrong arrogance, and wear out 
the energies of society by perpetual agitation 
of all the baser passions of mankind. It is 
merely a question whether the extraordinary talent 
bestowed upon society by our Creator, shall be 
a blessing or a curse to us and to our children. 



8 

I feel however, that this part of the discussion 
need not be protracted to any greater extent. 
The importance of liberal education is fully ad- 
mitted by every American citizen. Most of 
the older States have from the earliest period 
of their history devoted special attention to 
the establishment of Colleges and Academies. 
In many of them, institutions of this kind have 
been liberally if not munificently endowed. Many 
of our most distinguished private citizens have 
contributed largely of their property to the same 
object. In all the new States magnificent foun- 
dations have been laid for the endowment of 
Colleges and Universities. The American Al- 
manac for this year, (1842,) contains a list of the 
Cofleges in this country, amounting to one hundred 
and one in number. To these, additions will for 
some time to come, be annually made. The 
same work gives us a list of thirty-nine Theo- 
logical Seminaries, ten Law Schools, and thirty- 
one Medical Schools. It may then safely be 
taken for granted that the people of this country 
are already deeply impressed with the importance 
of collegiate and professional education. 

Taking this part for granted, I need offer no 
apology for the following remarks. If so much 
of the intellect and the wealth of this nation is 
most laudably devoted to the promotion of this 
branch of education ; if it be the settled policy of 
the country to appropriate to it whatever its true 
necessities may require, if the stream of private 
munificence flows more readily in this channel 



9 

than in almost any other, It is of the utmost im- 
portance that all this expenditure of wealth and 
talent should be wisely directed. And yet more. 
Our institutions in this country are, to a considera- 
ble degree, in a state of formation. They are 
not yet hedged about by precedents which can 
never be abolished, nor bound up by statutes which 
can never be amended. With every year, how- 
ever, change will become more and more difficult. 
A college must, of necessity, be in some sort a 
legally established foundation, and precedents and 
usages grow up more rapidly, and sink their roots 
deeper in this soil than in any other. And this is 
more particularly the case where a number of 
institutions are united together to accomplish a 
similar object. If formed on the same model, 
they create a necessity, to a considerable degree, 
of similarity of action. It is practically difficult 
for any one to deviate from the others, and hence 
a course which each one allows to be unwise, 
will frequently be persevered in by all, because no 
one is willing to incur the disadvantage of being 
the first to separate from the rest. Under these 
circumstances it cannot be out of place to enter 
upon a brief examination of the principles on 
which this part of our educational system has thus 
far proceeded. 

The present system of collegiate instruction is 
very much the same throughout the United States. 
With but very few exceptions it consists of a four 
years course, terminating in graduation, all the 
students pursuing the same studies, the same labor 



10 

being required from all, and the same time being 
allotted to each. I merely allude in these few- 
words to the character of the system, as I shall 
have occasion to explain its nature more fully in 
the following chapter. I here wish only to ob- 
serve the universality with which this model has 
been copied. The older institutions have in no 
important respect ever ventured to deviate from 
it, and the new ones have considered their own 
organization perfect in just so far as they have 
been able to approximate to it. 

In connexion with this fact it is proper to 
remark that for a very considerable period, a very 
general opinion has prevailed that something in the 
system required material modification. 

At one time an attempt was made to supply 
what was believed to be a deficiency in the system 
of collegiate education by the establishment of 
Gymnasia or High Schools. In several instances 
gentlemen of ripe and varied learning, with much 
knowledge of the systems of European education, 
were induced to connect themselves with semina- 
ries of this character. Teachers in abundance 
and of high reputation were secured, and pupils 
in great numbers resorted to them for instruction. 
But in a few years these experiments totally failed. 
Parents were, I believe, more dissatisfied with 
them than with the colleges which it was at one 
time supposed they would supplant. Next fol- 
lowed Military High Schools, or seminaries for 
instruction in the higher branches of learning, 
formed after the model of the U. S. Military 



11 



Academy at West Point. These very rapidly 
followed the course of the Gymnasia ; their 
buildings were deserted, and I believe that in a 
iew years the establishments themselves generally 
came under the hammer. 

These seminaries were commonly very expen- 
sive, and their advantages were of course con- 
fined exclusively to the children of the wealthy. 
This was considered by many persons as the 
cause of their failure. The next experiment was 
varied in this respect, and Manual Labor Schools 
were established. The benevolent were called 
upon to invest a large amount of property in 
buildings and land, with the expectation that stu- 
dents would be able by their own labor to support 
themselves, while acquiring a liberal education. 
These institutions also flourished, until the invest- 
ments had all been consumed, and they then 
shared the fate of their predecessors. No one of 
them, I believe ever produced at the best more 
than two or three per cent, on the principal, so that 
it would have been far more economical to have 
placed the original capital at ordinary interest, and 
have bestowed the proceeds upon persons deserv- 
ing of the charity. The money thus squandered 
has not however been wholly thrown away. It has 
taught good men to examine somewhat more care- 
fully into the rationale of schemes of benevolence, 
and has served to demonstrate that no man can 
devote the time necessary for acquiring a profes- 
sional education without the expenditure of money. 
If he do not pay for it himself he must by some 



12 

means or other induce his neighbors to make the 
payment for him. 

'IMiL'se various modifications in the form of in- 
stitutions for education in the higher branches of 
education having failed to answer the expectations 
of the pubhc, nothing remained but to attempt to 
improve the colleges themselves. The forms in 
which this attempt has been made are various, and 
they have been attended with various degrees of 
success. Some few of them are deserving of a 
passing notice. 

It has been said that the course of study in 
our colleges was formed in a remote age, and that 
it is adapted only to a state of society very differ- 
ent from our own. Specially has it been urged 
that the study of the classics is at best but useless, 
that it has no relation to our present duties and 
every day engagements, and that the time devo- 
ted to it had much better be employed upon the 
study of the Modern Languages. Besides, it has 
been said that our collegiate course should extend its 
benefits to merchants, manufacturers, and every 
class of citizens. These persons desire the hon- 
ors of a degree as much as others. They do not 
however wish to waste their time in the study of 
the classics, and therefore the studies required of 
the candidate for a degree should be accommoda- 
ted so as to meet these their reasonable wishes. 
It was predicted that as soon as this change should 
be made, our colleges would be crowded with 
those who were anxious to avail themselves of 
these advantages and to obtain the honor of a 
degree. 



13 



In obedience with these suggestions a change 
was made some years since in the studies of some of 
our colleges. Both a classical and scientific course 
were estabhshed, the first requiring the study of 
the Learned and the other substituting in their 
room the Modern languages. Teachers were 
engaged, classes were divided, each student had 
his option, and all who wished were invited to be- 
come candidates for a degree upon these modified 
conditions. But what was the result ? No one 
came to accept of what was thus freely offered. 
The system dragged for a few years, and then per- 
ished from mere inanition. 

Very much the same course has been pursued 
in regard to the higher mathematics. The same 
objections were made to this branch of a liberal 
education, and it has been proposed to substitute 
in their place the study of history or of natural 
science. To a considerable degree this experi- 
ment has been combined with the other, and with 
very much the same result. The colleges so far 
as I know, which have obeyed the suggestions of 
the public, have failed to find themselves sustain- 
ed by the public. The means which it was sup- 
posed would increase the number of students in 
fact diminished it, and thus things gradually after 
every variety of trial have generally tended to 
their original constitution. So much easier is it 
to discover faults than to amend them ; to point 
out evils than to remove them. And thus have 
we been taught that the public does not always 
know what it wants, and that it is not always wise 
to take it at its word. 



14 

But as the number of students in most of our 
colleges was commonly much less than could be 
desired, and as colleges have steadily continued 
to multiply, it was next supposed that the reason 
why they were not more numerously attended was 
the high price of tuition. The price of a colle- 
giate education, however, it may be remarked in 
passing, has always been exceedingly low in this 
country. It is, and has long been much less than 
that of private tuition ; and the officers of col- 
leges are always remunerated at a much lower rate 
than other professional men. Still it was believed 
that collegiate education would be in a more pros- 
perous condition if tuition could be much more 
nearly given away. When the number of stu- 
dents in a college began to diminish so that the 
pittance granted to instructors could no more be 
doled out, an effort was next made to raise addi- 
tional funds for the support of instructors. This 
fund has sometimes been used for the endowment 
of professorships, and sometimes for the general 
reduction of tuition or for the support of indigent 
students. Very large sums have been from time to 
time appropriated to this purpose. This of 
course will partly remedy the evil. When a val- 
uable consideration is to be given away, it is not 
generally difficult to find persons willing to accept 
of it. 

In this manner there is no doubt that a college 
may be supported. If after buildings have been 
erected, and a considerable amount of funds in- 
vested, and the teachers remunerated at the lowest 



15 

possible rate, pupils cannot be attracted in suffi- 
cient numbers to support the establishment, we 
may yet be allowed to draw upon the charities of 
the public to make up the deficiency, the system 
may doubdess be sustained. And this is I believe at 
present the very general condition of colleges 
among us. I doubt whether any one could attract 
a respectable number of pupils, however large its 
endowments and however great its advantages, did 
it charge for tuition the fees which would be requi- 
site to remunerate its officers at the rate ordina- 
rily received by other professional men. In some 
of our colleges education is given away to every 
person who enters the plea of indigence. Others 
are in possession of funds appropriated to a con- 
siderable amount to this purpose. In most of 
them, candidates for the ministry are educated 
gratuitously or at a great reduction from the ordi- 
nary charge for tuition. In this manner collegi- 
ate education has come to be considered to a very 
great extent a matter of charity ; and the found- 
ing of a college consists not so much in providing 
means for higher education and thus elevating the 
general standard of intellectual attainment, as the 
collecting of funds for eleemosynary distribution, 
by which those who desire to pursue the course 
which we have marked out may be enabled to do 
so at the least possible cost. 

Now I cannot but look at this as an unnatural 
state of things. Let a man reflect upon the wages 
of labor in this country, at the ease with which 
industrious men in every occupation arrive at com- 



16 

petence, let him pass through our streets and enter 
our houses and inspect our modes of living and 
he will surely say that a very large portion of our 
people are able to meet the expenses of bestow- 
ing upon their children as good an education as 
they can receive with advantage. There does 
not appear from our outward circumstances any 
reason why a man should not pay a fair price for 
the education of his son just as he pays a fair 
price for the education of his daughter ; or for 
the furniture, the carpets, the pianos, the mirrors 
of his parlor, or the implements, the stock, and 
the acres of his farm. Nor can it be said that as 
a people we are unaware of the advantages of 
knowledge. In all our cities and towns, the pri- 
vate instructor is liberally paid. There are cer- 
tainly all the elements in existence out of which 
must arise a strong desire for the intellectual im- 
provement of our offspring. And yet while this 
is the fact we find all around us very large invest- 
ments made for the purposes of public education, 
the interest of their investments is bestowed upon 
the public, and yet we cannot induce men to pursue a 
collegiate course unless we offer it vastly below 
its cost, if we do not give it away altogether. 

From the preceding facts I think we are war- 
ranted in coming to the following conclusions. 
First, that there is in this country a very general 
willingness both in the public and on the part 
of individuals to furnish all the necessary means 
for the improvement of collegiate education. 
Second, that the present system of collegiate edu- 



17 

tion does not meet the wants of the public. The 
evidence of this is seen in the fact that change 
after change has been suggested in the system with- 
out however any decided result, and still more 
from the fact that although this kind of education 
is afforded at a lower price than any other, we 
cannot support our present institutions without 
giving a large portion of our education away. 
Third, that this state of things is neither owing to 
the poverty of our people nor to their indifference 
to the subject of education. Our citizens seem 
really more willing to educate other men's sons 
than their own, to provide the means of educa- 
tion rather than to avail themselves of them after 
they have been provided. Now, do not these 
facts indicate the necessity of some change in our 
educational system. A liberal education is cer- 
tainly a valuable consideration. Can it not be 
made to recommend hself ; so that he who wishes 
to obtain it shall also be willing to pay for it ^ 
Cannot this general impression in favor of educa- 
tion be turned to some practical account, so that 
the system may be able to take care of itself.^ 
Or at any rate, if after all that has been done we 
remain without having effected any material 
change, may it not be well to examine the whole 
system and see whether its parts may not admit of 
some better adjustment and work out a more per- 
fect result. To pursue such an inquiry is the 
object of the following pages. 

2 



CHAPTER II. 

THE PRESENT SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE INSTRUCTION IN 
THE UNITED STATES. 

In any combination whatever for the accom- 
plishment of a specific purpose, there must of ne- 
cessity be some arrangement of parts co-operating 
together so as to bring about the intended result. 
There must have been an original conception com- 
prehending all the parts and the manner of their 
working. Thus when we speak of a system of 
government we refer to the general conception of 
its executive, judicial, and legislative functions, 
their powers and limitations, and the modes in 
which they accomplish their purpose. And it 
is evident that we can never judge correctly of 
the value of such a system, unless we are enabled 
to form a clear conception of its several parts 
and to observe their adaptation to the end for 
which they were designed. 

The arrangements for public professional 
education, from the nature of the case, comprize 
a system in the manner above specified. They 
involve several varieties of official station, having 



19 

difterent and dissimilar functions, and each respon- 
sible to a different authority. Thus, for instance, 
a college is an endowed or eleemosynary insti- 
tution, this endowment is vested in corporators who 
are under obligation to see that it is appropriated 
according to the will of the donor. The college 
has the power of conferring degrees, a power with 
which it is intrusted by the public and it is the 
business of these corporators in behalf of the public 
to inquire into the manner in which this power is 
exercised. There is, again, the faculty or exec- 
utive officers of the college whose duty it is to 
instruct according to the statutes, and who are 
appointed by, and are responsible to, the corpora- 
tors, or those officers who are intrusted with the 
visitorial power. Suppose all these powers to 
have been defined, and the system ready to go 
into effect, it may then be inquired what is it 
that is intended to be done, how is it to be done, 
and what are the means for carrying it into effect. 
In examining any collegiate system all these 
subjects of inquiry will naturally arise. They 
are manifestly of importance, and they may be 
treated of with the greater freedom because they 
have nothing whatever to do wiih individuals. 
They are abstract questions having simply to do 
with a system, and that system may be considered 
good or bad, wise or unwise, perfect or imperfect, 
without calling in question in the slightest degree 
the wisdom or the learning or the ability of those 
by whom the system is carried into effect. The 
question is not whether one man or another is or 



20 

is not able and judicious, and praiseworthy, 
but, granting him to be all these, whether or not 
he might under another system accomplish more 
successfully the objects to the advancement of 
which he has devoted his talents. 

It is very evident that our present collegiate sys- 
tem was derived immediately from that of Oxford 
and Cambridge Universities. Both involved the 
same points in every thing material. Both adopt the 
principles of established classes, to each of which 
a whole year of study is allotted ; of a fixed 
course of study for every pupil ; of considering 
every pupil a candidate for a degree ; of residence 
within the college premises ; and, of course of res- 
ponsibility in the officers for the moral conduct 
of the pupil, and connected with this a provision for 
the students' board. In other words, every college 
is a large boarding school for pupils of an advanced 
age, providing for each student, board, lodging 
and oversight, and obliging every one to go 
through the same course of studies within the 
same time, and terminating, unless for some special 
cause, in the degree of Batchelor of Arts. In 
all these essential points of the system the English 
and American colleges exactly coincide. 

The points of difference are (ew, and so far as the 
present discussion is concerned, unimportant. An 
English College does not confer degrees ; these 
are conferred only by the University, a corporation 
at present constituted from the members of the 
several colleges collectively. The University 
gives no instruction, or next to none, but confers 



21 

degrees on those whom the colleges have instruct- 
ed. Our colleges both furnish instruction and 
also confer degrees. If we were to isolate 
Trinity or St John's College, Cambridge, from the 
University, and grant to it the power of conferring 
degrees, we should have at once the model on 
which all our early New England colleges were 
constructed. Like the English colleges they 
were also originally established with only a Presi- 
dent and Tutors. To these subsequently Pro- 
fessors were added ; but this addition, though a 
material improvement, in no manner changed the 
system. It has greatly added to our means of 
instruction, but it has, in no respect, altered the 
relations which the various parts of a university 
sustain to each other. 

The first colleges in this country were estab- 
lished by graduates from Cambridge and Oxford, 
and principally from the former. The more re- 
cent American colleges, were again established by 
graduates from the older ones, and thus, without 
reflection as to the adaptedness of this form to pro- 
mote the purposes of education, it became the inva- 
riable model to which all our institutions have from 
time to time been conformed. With this brief no- 
tice of the history of our collegiate establishments, 
I shall proceed to examine the several parts of 
which they are composed, and the manner in 
which they attempt to accomplish their design. 



22 

1 . Of the Visitorial Power. 

It is obvious that if a large amount of public 
property, or of property which has been contribu- 
ted or bequeathed by private charity for a public 
purpose be intrusted to special agents for the ac- 
complishment of that purpose, some individual or 
corporation must exist, to whom these agents 
must be held responsible for the due discharge of 
their duties. In the case of a College, to this visito- 
rial power properly belongs the oversight of the 
property of the institution, the appointment and 
removal of officers of instruction, the establish- 
ment of laws for the government of the society, 
and the general duty of ascertaining from time to 
time whether the ends desired by the founder or 
the State are accomplished. Sometimes a part of 
these duties are, I by the terms of the foundation, 
differently appropriated, and the members of the 
college exercise, or are supposed to exercise, 
visitorial powers over themselves. This is evi- 
dently an abuse and is inconsistent with the well 
being of the institution. In this case, the visitorial 
power proper is more limited in its authority. It 
cannot then originate statutes and can do nothing 
more than see that the statutes, whatever they 
may be, are enforced. This is commonly the 
case with the English colleges. Every college 
has its visitor appointed by the statutes of the 
foundation, commonly the King, a Nobleman or 
Bishop, and his duty, if he really have any, is 
merely to see that the injunctions of the founder 



23 

are obeyed. I need scarcely add that in this case 
the authority is in general merely nominal. 

In this country the visitorial power is almost 
universally vested in a corporation commonly de- 
nominated the Board of Trustees. Sometimes 
there are two or more boards and the visitorial 
power is divided betwen them. On this corpora- 
tion, whether simple or complex, devolve the du- 
ties to which I have alluded in a preceding para- 
graph. They hold the property of the Institution, 
appoint and remove all officers of instruction and 
government, fix and alter their salaries, enact all 
laws, and see that these laws are carried into 
effect, or at least they assume the responsibility of 
performing all these duties. This corporation is 
created in the first instance by the Legislative act 
which grants the charter to the college, and they 
have the power, in most cases, of filling their own 
vacancies. The office is commonly for life. 
For the discharge of its duties these corporators 
are responsible to no one. If they do well they 
receive no praise, and if ill, no censure. They 
make no report of their proceedings, for there is 
no power to which they are amenable. They 
are wholly independent of all authority. They 
receive no payment for their services and are re- 
munerated for their labors merely by the personal 
consideration which may be supposed to attach to 
their office. 

I have said that the members of the Board of 
Trustees, in an American college hold their offices 
for life, and fill their own vacancies. This is 



24 

generally the fact. In a few cases they are ap- 
pointed for a term of years by the Legislatures of 
the State by which the college is established, and 
in some other cases they are composed in part of 
the officers of government. These however are 
the exceptions. The general rule is as I have 
stated. 

So far as I know, this corporation meets about 
once a year, at the time of the annual commence- 
ment. Their meeting commonly occupies but a 
portion of a day. In this time, vacancies in the 
Board of instruction, and in their own board are 
filled, the salaries of instructors are voted, they 
receive a general account of the condition of the 
college, attend to a few items of miscellaneous 
business, and their duties are discharged for the 
year. Every thing else appertaining to the work- 
ing of the system is carried on by the officers of 
instruction. I ought to have added that all de- 
grees are conferred by the Board of Trustees. 

I have said, that occasionally, their exist two 
boards instead of one. I may add that to one of 
these not unfrequently, a more direct influence over 
the course of instruction is confided. In such a 
case, it sometimes happens that this board meets 
oftener, and that to it are occasionally referred 
matters of serious discipline, or proposed regula- 
lations in the course of study. This is however 
a modification of the form rather than of the fact. 
The corporators do not consider it necessary in 
this case more than in the other, to make them- 
selves familiarly acquainted with the subject of 



25 

education. They are generally men of high pro- , 
fessional standing, deeply immersed in business ; 
and, relying, in the main, upon the superior prac- 
tical knowledge of the senior officer of college, 
in general, yield an assent to his suggestions, and 
assist him more by dividing with him the responsi- 
bility than in any other manner. 

2. Of the Executive Officers of Colleges. 

These consist very generally of a President, 
Professors, and Tutors. The first two offices 
are held during good behavior, that is, unless 
some serious disqualification be proved, for life. 
The office of tutor is annual, and the incumbent 
generally holds it for two or three years, for the 
purpose, mainly, of perfecting himself in his clas- 
sical and mathematical studies, previously to en- 
tering upon the immediate preparation for his pro- 
fession. 

On these officers devolves the whole labor of 
the instruction and government of the college. 
The president, besides being the principal execu- 
tive officer, is generally charged with some depart- 
ment of instruction. To each professor is com- 
mitted a particular department, although it is not 
uncommon, when the necessities of the college 
demand it, for one to take a share in the labors of 
another. The instruction given by the tutors is 
generally confined to the two lower classes. It is 
however commonly understood, in theory at least, 
that the professor is responsible for the instruction. 



26 

in his department whether that instruction be given 
by himself or by a junior officer. It is therefore 
his duty to superintend the labors of the tutor and 
give to him all the advantage of his superior 
knowledge and experience. The care of the col- 
legiate discipline is generally devolved upon the 
whole body of the faculty. Sometimes however 
the reverse is the case and a part of the officers 
of instruction have no other duty than that of 
teaching, while the discipline is confided to the 
others, or to persons specially appointed for this 
purpose. 

These officers are all appointed by the corpora- 
tion or Board of Trustees, or that body, by what 
name soever it may be called, which exercises 
visitorial power. Their salaries are, I believe, 
generally the same during their continuance in 
office, and are rarely if ever either increased or 
diminished in consequence of the success or the in- 
sufficiency of the incumbent. If the number of stu- 
dents in college increases, the additional receipts 
are devoted to the erection of buildings, the em- 
ployment of other professors, or the reduction of 
the price of tuition, and not to the augmentation 
of the salaries of the present instructors. And as 
these salaries are commonly so small that to re- 
duce them would oblige all the officers to resign, if 
the number of students becomes so far diminished 
that even the present salary cannot be paid, an ap- 
peal is at once made to the charity of the public 
to sustain the institution. This appeal is common- 
ly made on the ground of the necessity of educating 



27 

young men for the office of the christian ministry ; 
and it is commonly successful. A whole college 
faculty is thus sometimes for a considerable period 
supported in part by charity; their fees for tuition 
being sufficient to pay but a portion of their salary. 

The assignment of the duties of the different offi- 
cers, is, I believe, generally either left to them- 
selves ; or is adjusted by usage. No one has any su- 
pervision over any other, except in the case of junior 
officers already mentioned. The number of pu- 
pils attendant upon a particular professor is never 
influenced by his peculiar merits ; inasmuch as 
every student is a candidate for a degree, and ev- 
ery candidate for a degree must attend the instruc- 
tions of every teacher. Here is of course the 
smallest possible encouragement to individual ex- 
ertion, and to elevated attainment since whether 
the teacher do much or little, whether he be suc- 
cessful or unsuccessful his emolument and the 
number of his pupils will remain almost unchange- 
ably the same. 

It might be supposed that when the system has 
thus removed all the ordinary stimulants to pro- 
fessional effiart, it w^ould supply their place by in- 
creased vigilance in the visitorial power. But 
this I believe is never done. The connexion be- 
tween the visitorial and executive branches of in- 
struction is, in this respect, so far as I know, 
almost a nullity. For all practical purposes it might 
almost as well never exist. A Board of Trustees X 
too frequently neither knows, nor provides itself 
with the means of knowing any more about the 



28 



internal working of the college, over whose desti- 
nies they are chosen to preside than any other 
men. 

3. Let us now consider for how much the Col- 
lege, thus constituted, assumes the responsibility. 

The portion of education conducted in a col- 
lege is that which intervenes between the elemen- 
tary studies of the academy and the immediate 
preparation for one of the three learned profes- 
sions. In the academy are taught the several 
branches of an ordinary English education with 
such an acquaintance with the Latin and Greek 
languages as the college may require as the condi- 
tion for matriculation. The college therefore as- 
sumes the responsibility of furnishing the knowl- 
edge required at the present day, in order to qualify 
a well educated man for the generous pursuit of 
his profession. This at present is understood to 
comprehend instruction beyond what has been ac- 
quired in the academy, in Latin and Greek, in the 
Mathematics to a considerable extent, in the vari- 
ous branches of Natural Philosophy, in Rhetoric, 
theoretical and practical, in various branches of 
Natural Science, and in Moral and Intellectual Phi- 
losophy together with their kindred sciences. — It 
cannot be denied that all this knowledge is desira- 
ble, and being desirable, the college undertakes to 
furnish it. 

A broad distinction here should also be observed 
between the English and all other European Uni- 



I 



29 

versities. The English Institutions not only fur- 
nish education, but also board and lodging for the 
student ; hence assuming the responsibility of 
moral guardianship over him. For this purpose 
they were originally designed, and all their ar- 
rangements both material and intellectual were 
constituted accordingly. The form of an English 
college is always a quadrangle, or hollow square. 
To this square the entrance is by a single gateway, 
at which a porter is always in attendance, until a 
certain hour of the night. After the gate is closed, 
all ingress and egress are intended to be impracti- 
cable. If a student is out of his room at night, 
or if he return to it at a late hour, it is of course 
known to the officer to whom the student is res- 
ponsible. Within the quadrangle all the students 
and officers reside. The officers were at first all 
monks, (for these were originally Catholic founda- 
tions,) and even now all the Fellows are prohibited 
from marrying. The students were in ancient 
times all boys. Corporal punishment was some- 
times inflicted so late, it is said, as the time of Mil- 
ton ; and I have seen it stated that a law is now 
found in the statute books of one of the universi- 
ties, prohibiting the undergraduates from playing at 
marbles in front of the Senate house. The stu- 
dents and officers all eat at a commoji table ; hence 
the origin of the word commons. In fact, the 
whole establishment is constructed upon the plan 
of a common family, all the members inhabiting 
parts of the same edifice ; the undergraduat^es 
being placed in the matter of education and disci- 
pline wholly under the care of the seniors. 



30 

The same plan as I have before intimated was 
adopted in the foundation of American colleges, 
but without the same means for carrying it into 
effect. The officers, here as well as abroad, as- 
sume the charge of the board and lodging, and of 
course of the moral discipline of the student. 
But our buildings are constructed with no regard 
to such a supervision. The Professors ar^ com- 
monly married men, residing at a distance from 
college. The commons table is occupied fre- 
quently by students alone ; and there is no body 
of Fellows who are supposed to have a care over 
the morals and discipline of the younger members 
of the society. It is manifest that under these 
circumstances this responsibility has been assumed 
without sufficient reflection, and without the 
means necessary to carry it into effect. 

I may remark in passing, that this particular 
feature of the English and American colleges is 
altogether peculiar to themselves. It is not found 
in any of the Universities on the continent, or in 
Scotland. Every where else, the student who 
enters upon an University course is supposed ca- 
pable of self government. His parents provide 
for him a suitable residence, and such supervision 
as may be demanded by his age and circumstances, 
and he visits the University only for the purposes 
of instruction. In this manner the Institution is 
responsible for nothing but his education proper. 
The rest devolves upon himself or upon those to 
whom, by his parents, he may have been commit- 
ted. It will be perceived that this division of the 



31 

responsibility must render the duties of an instruc- 
tor in these two cases very dissimilar, and must 
materially affect the whole system of the institu- 
tion. The mode of its operation will be consid- 
ered in another place. 

In connexion with this circumstance another 
may be mentioned. If a college is conducted on 
the boarding school plan, it will of course be sup- 
posed by parents that their sons when at college 
are under parental supervision. Hence they are 
sent to such institutions at a very early age. 
Young persons may be admitted to our colleges at 
the close of their fourteenth year, and many enter 
at that early age. The requirements of our col- 
leges are, however, so moderate, that a young man 
who has commenced life with other expectations, 
may, at a much more advanced age, change his 
pursuits, and in a year or two be prepared for 
admission to college. Thus, a considerable pro- 
portion of every class have attained to twenty-five 
or thirty years of age. Thirty-two or three is not 
an uncommon age for a candidate for the degree 
of Bachelor of Arts. Here then are students of 
very dissimilar ages associated together, pursuing 
the same studies and subjected to the same rules. 
It is obvious that the rules suitable for one party, 
would be unsuitable for the other ; and yet the 
necessity Is apparent of subjecting every member 
of the same society, to the same regulations. 
Such, in these respects, is our present system. 
While it has many excellencies, it is clear that the 
carrying it into practical working, must be attend- 



22 

ed with greater and more complicated difficulties 
than to many persons, would be apparent. 

4. Of the Course of Study. 

Supposing a faculty of instructors to have been 
thus organized. Let us proceed to examine the 
working of the system. At the commencement 
of every collegiate year, a new class is formed 
called the Freshmen class. The candidates are 
admitted upon an examination conducted by the fac- 
ulty. A room is assigned to each student within 
the college buildings. In most instances two stu- 
dents occupy the same room ; though in the 
more recently erected college buildings, two dor- 
mitories are attached to each sitting room. The 
student is required to be in his room during study 
hours, and always at night. Board is generally 
furnished at the price of cost by the college. 
The same charge is made to every pupil for tuition 
and board and room rent. The other expenses 
depend upon the student himself. 

There are generally three daily recitations or 
lectures to be attended by each student through- 
out the whole course. A recitation or lecture 
commonly occupies one hour, though this time 
may in some colleges be abridged. When a class 
is large, it is formed into two or three sections, 
each pursuing the same studies, unless, as it some- 
times happens, the division is made on the princi- 
ple of scholarship, and then the better scholars are 
tasked more severely. The upper classes are 



33 

not so commonly divided, as their instruction 
is to a greater extent carried on by means of 
Lectures. 

A year, in imitation of the English colleges, is 
divided into three terms, and three vacations. 
The vacations occupy about twelve or thirteen 
weeks. During this time students and officers 
are at liberty to employ their time as they please. 
One of the vacations extends to the length of 
six or eight weeks, and takes place either in the 
summer or winter. The former is the proper 
season for vacation, if the health of the faculty 
and students, and the interests of education are 
considered. The latter, however, is frequently 
chosen, in order to accommodate those young 
men who wish to be absent for the purpose of 
teaching schools in the country. 

Examinations are held at the close of each 
term, or at the close of the year, or at some other 
specified time, of all the students, in all the 
studies to which they have attended. These 
examinations are viva voce, and occupy in the aggre- 
gate a considerable portion of time. As, however, 
in this manner only one person can be examined 
at a time, the scrutiny which falls upon any indi- 
vidual can neither be very severe nor very long 
continued. The examination is, I believe, always 
restricted to the book which has been studied ; 
the student not being considered responsible for 
any thing that may not have been acquired in the 
recitation room. 

Examinations are, so far as I know, always 

3 



34 

conducted by the instructor himself. It is of course 
the special duty of the visitors to be present on 
such occasions, but, so for as I know, this duty 
is almost never discharged. Sometimes they 
appoint a committee of examination, from their 
own number, and when this has been made an 
office of small emolument, I have known it to be 
discharged with punctuality ; but never otherwise. 
Sometimes, committees are appointed from the 
community at large, consisting of persons who are 
supposed to be interested in the cause of educa- 
tion. This plan has sometimes succeeded, but 
in other cases I have known it to fail altogether. 
In but few districts of our country could it be 
relied upon as at all an efficient aid to the labors 
of instructors. 

If, after examination, a student is found to be 
deficient in the studies of his class, his deficiency is 
sometimes publicly announced, sometimes he is re- 
quired to make up this deficiency in vacation, and 
in some institutions, he is not allowed to become a 
candidate for a degree unless he have passed his 
examinations in all the studies of the college 
course. 

The studies of each class occupy one year. 
At the close of the year those students who have 
incurred no disability, are advanced to the next 
higher class. Those who have been thus ad- 
vanced through all the four classes are candidates 
for the degree of Bachelor of Arts ; and proceed 
to this degree as a matter of course. 

The studies of each College are appointed by 



35 

its Corporation or Board of visitors. These may 
differ in some unimportant points, yet are in all 
the Northern colleges so nearly similar that students 
in good standing in one institution find little diffi- 
culty in being admitted to any other. In order to 
illustrate the nature and amount of the studies 
pursued in a New England college, I here abridge 
from one of the catalogues published within the 
present year, 1S41-2, the statutory course pre- 
scribed for a candidate for the degree of A. B. 
In Latin, select portions of Livy, Tacitus, Ho- 
race, Cicero de Oratore, Juvenal ; — In Greek, 
select portions of Xenophon's Anabasis, Me- 
morabilia, the Iliad, some of the tragedies 
*of Sophocles and Eschylus, with Demosthenes' 
Oration for the Crown ; In Mathematics, Geom- 
etry, plane and solid. Algebra, Trigonometry 
plane and spherical, and its applications to 
practical mathematics, and Analytical Geometry ; in 
Natural Philosophy, Mechanics, Pneumatics, Hy- 
drostatics, Optics, and Astronomy ; — In natural 
Science, Chemistry, Vegetable and Animal Phys- 
iology, and Geology; — In Intellectual and Mora, 
Science, Rhetoric, theoretical and practical, Logicl 
Intellectual and Moral Philosophy, Political Econ- 
omy, Butler's Analogy, and the American Con- 
stitution. Many of these studies, besides being 
pursued by means of a text book, are illustrated by 
full courses of lectures and ample experiments. 

I have remarked that the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts is conferred in course upon every pupil 
who has, with a reasonable degree of success. 



pursued the studies of the college course. I 
ought to mention that in some instances, of late, 
the course has been divided. At the option of 
the student, after the first year, the Modern 
languages and History with some branches of 
Physical Science may be substituted for the further 
prosecution of the Latin and Greek languages 
and the Mathematics ; and students pursuing this 
latter course are equally entitled to a degree with 
the others. 

The degree of Master of Arts is conferred upon 
every Bachelor of three years standing, who ap- 
plies for it and pays the customary fee. After 
his graduation, the connexion of the student with 
the University or College ceases. Jn England,* 
by paying a small annual fee, he continues a mem- 
ber of the University, is entitled to a seat in the 
scnatus academicus, and a vote upon all ques- 
tions coming before that society, and if he choose, 
may proceed regularly to the higher degrees in 
the several faculties of Law, Medicine or Divin- 
ity. With us, all degrees besides those of A. 
M. are honorary, and are supposed to be confer- 
red on account of high professional attainment. 
Coileges confer these degrees on the graduates of 
each other ; although, more properly, I suppose 
they ought to restrict themselves to their own grad- 
uates. These degrees are, as I have said, al- 
ways conferred by the Board of Visitors, or as it 
is called, the Corporation. 

It has always I believe been found necessary, in 
order to secure the amount of diligence desirable 



37 

in a course of academical education, to provide a 
system of accessory stimulants in addition to those 
derived from the simple love of truth. The love 
of pleasure is commonly in young persons, too 
strong to be controlled by the love of knowledge, 
or by the remote prospect of professional success. 
Nay, even the principle of duty too frequently 
requires to be strengthened by the hope of present 
advantage ; and hence the kind and the degree of 
stimulants, entering into a College course, deserves 
a portion of our attention. In the Universities 
of the continent, the difficulty of procuring situa- 
tions of honor or emolument, and the impossibility 
of being admitted to them without good Uni- 
versity standing, provides all the stimulus which 
the nature of the case requires. 

In the Universities of England, the system of 
stimulants is carried, as it seems to me, to an inju- 
rious extent. The number of premiums, schol- 
arships and exhibitions, each of considerable 
pecuniary value, annually conferred upon success- 
ful scholarship, is very great. Besides these there 
are in the possession of each University, between 
three and four hundred fellowships, worth, I think, 
about two hundred pounds sterling per annum, 
exclusive of residence, and these are awarded, 
commonly by examination, to the most distin- 
guished graduates. 

The Fellows may hold their office for life, and 
from them the tutors, and heads of colleges, and 
the professors and other officers of the University 
are always selected. In addition to these, about 



38 

four hundred Church livings are in the gift of 
each University, or of the several Colleges ; and 
these are always bestowed upon the Fellows or 
other distinguished members of the society. 

All this is visible and tangible. But this 
presents only a most imperfect conception of 
the stimulating force applied to the student in 
an English University. Oxford and Cambridge 
form a part, and no unimportant part, of the social 
system of Great Britain. To these institutions, 
the youth of the higher classes, from every part 
of the realm, resort to spend the latter period 
of their pupilage. There the youthful aristoc- 
racy meet and become acquainted with each 
other. Thither are the eyes of parents from 
every county in the Kingdom turned with fond 
anxiety. Thither do the bar, the pulpit, and 
the senate look for the young men who have 
there made it known that nature has marked 
them for distinction. And besides all this, there 
was never so vast a people bound together by 
so many and so indissoluble social ties as that of 
Great Britian. The British Nation, or rather 
the elite of that nation in a remarkable degree 
form one great family. London, '' that mighty 
heart," sends out its pulsations to every extrem- 
ity of the empire, and is in turn receiving from 
every extremity the hfe-blood which it vitalizes 
and sends back again. Every man of distinction 
is expected to report himself there during some 
part of the ''season," and he must do it in order 
as Sir Walter Scott says, "to keep himself 



39 

abreast of society." Hence men of eminence 
are much more generally known to each other 
than in any other country that ever existed. And 
hence the stimulating effect of social opinion is 
stronger than in any other country upon earth. 

Now the Universities live and move and have 
their being in the very blaze of this social efful- 
gence. Every distinguished man holds, and is 
proud to hold through life, his connexion with his 
College and his University. He hears with inter- 
est of all that concerns its prosperity. He feels 
a pride in every pupil of his College or University 
vvho has distinguished himself. At the last 
election of High Steward for the University of 
Cambridge, gentlemen went from all parts of the 
Kingdom, merely to give their vote, though public 
cares obliged them to return the very next hour after 
they had done it. An instance of this kind 
came within ray own knowledge. Nor is this 
an uncommon case, but the contrary. Such is 
the interest which the educated classes in Eng- 
land take in these cherished institutions of learning. 

The University thus stands prominently ante 
ora omniurru To obtain rank there, is to place 
oneself immediately in a position in society ; it 
shows to all, who in their several departments,- 
need the aid of talent, that a man is worth taking 
up. He becomes a marked man. Something is 
expected of him and he feels that if he only jus- 
tifies this expectation, his fortune is made. I was 
passing one day through the courts of Westmin- 
ster HalJ, with an intelligent and excellent friend, 



40 

a member of parliament, and I was struck with 
the fact, that, as he pointed out to me the judges 
and barristers of distinction, he never failed among 
the first items of information concerning them, to 
mention their University standing. Now where a 
position in society is a matter of so much impor- 
tance as in England, it must at once be seen that 
the means for obtaining such a position which the 
Universities afford, must be of incalculable value. 
And thus when the whole power of the social sys- 
tem is brought to bear upon the University, we can 
form some conception of the stimulus which it 
exerts upon the student of high and generous im- 
pulses. 

Now to all this we have nothing that bears even 
the shadow of a resemblance. There is in this 
respect no point of analogy which by any law of 
association, would lead us to think of the two 
systems in connexion. Tn most of our colleges, 
rank is assigned to the orators at commencement 
according to scholarship ; but even this custom is 
in danger of passing into desuetude. Some of 
our institutions, awed by the hoarse growl of 
popular discontent, have feared that a distinction 
of this kind savored of aristocracy, and have 
dropped it like a polluted thing. In but one of our 
Colleges, to my knowledge, is there any system of 
premiums for excellence in scholarship. Our com- 
munity is divided into state sovereignties, and so- 
ciety has here no centre, no heart like London, 
nor can it ever have. A graduate leaves his Col- 
lege when his course is completed, and his cod- 



41 

nexion with it and his interest in it cease. We 
have no centre to which talent of all kinds tends. 
A class, as soon as it leaves the walls of College, 
is scattered in a few days to every State and Ter- 
ritory in the union. The College or University 
forms no integral and necessary part of the social 
system. It plods on its weary way solitary and in 
darkness. 

Ibant soli sub node per umbram. 

The Colleges have but little connexion with 
each other. The public, when strenuously ap- 
pealed to, does not deny them money. They are 
interested in education in general and are desirous 
that the means of education should be afforded 
to a large class of the community. But here the 
interest ceases. After men have bestowed money, 
they seem utterly indifferent as to the manner in 
which it is to be employed. The educational 
system has no necessary connexions with any thing 
else. In no other country is the whole plan for 
the instruction of the young so entirely dissevered 
from connexion with the business of subsequent 
life. At West Point Military Academy, the stand- 
ing of a young man in his class, determines his 
place in the army. Every one must see how 
strong an impulse this connexion must give to 
diligence and good behavior. Our Colleges suf- 
fer greatly from the want of something of this 
kind. 

I have thus endeavored to present a plain view 
of the collegiate system of the United States. 



42 

To some readers it may seem tediously minute, to 
others brief and unsatisfactory. I have, however, 
thought it necessary to present an outline of this 
character in order to the accomplishment of my 
purpose. I wish to examine the system as it is, 
and it seemed useless to undertake such an exam- 
ination without reviewing briefly the nature of the 
thing to be examined. 

I shall now proceed to consider the different 
parts of the system, point out the defects of each, 
and offer a few suggestions in passing respecting 
the mode of their improvement. 



CHAPTER III. 

OF THE DEFECTS OF THE SYSTEM OF COLLEGIATE EDUCA. 
TION IN THE UNITED STATES, AND THE MEANS BY WHICH 
IT MAY BE IMPROVED. 

Sect. 1. Of the Visitorial Power. 

The first question that here presents itself for 
discussion is the following : — Whence arises the 
necessity for the exercise of visitorial power 
in a system of collegiate instruction. The answer 
to this question will immediately- present itself, 
when we have considered the difference between an 
establishment for public, and one for private educa- 
tion. A private school or academy is established by 
the instructor on his own responsibility, and solely 
for his own benefit. Like any other producer, 
he asks what is the product most in demand in 
the market, and having answered this question 
satisfactorily to himself, he offers to furnish the 
product to those who may desire and can pay 
for it. If he and his employers agree, his 
business prospers. If they differ, his business fails , 
and he must either abandon or modify it. If his 



44 

employers are satisfied, his end is accomplished. 
If he be incompetent or unfaithful, the thing 
speaks for itself, and in a very short time works 
its own remedy. The public is in no manner 
interested in the result. Beyond the parents who 
pay the teacher, the success or failure of the 
experiment is no man's concern. No immunities 
are granted to the instructor. The public sup- 
ports him by none of its funds, and therefore 
the public has no right to interfere with his 
affairs, or to inquire whether he manage them 
well or ill. 

In the case of a public institution, however, all 
this either is or ought to be reversed. This will 
appear from several considerations. 

1 . A collegiate establishment is supported in 
part by the public. Either the whole State, or 
a large number of individuals in the State have 
advanced a considerable amount of funds which 
are devoted exclusively to the support of the in- 
stitution. Not unfrequently legislative grants are 
annually made for the same purpose. The 
amount of capital thus invested in New England 
alone, would amount, I presume, to more than a 
million and a half of dollars. This sum having 
been invested for a particular purpose, it is evi- 
dent that the public has a right to visitorial power, 
in order to ascertain whether the income arising 
from it be appropriated according to its original 
design. Boards of Trustees or Corporations, are 
the agents to whom this power is committed, and 
they are bound to exercise it according to the design 
for which they were appointed. 



45 

2. To these institutions is committed the pow- 
er of conferring academical degrees, or publicly 
recognised certificates of a certain amount of lit- 
erary and scientific acquirement. These degrees 
were formerly to a great degree, necessary to en- 
trance upon the study of either of the learned 
professions. The rules in these professions have 
of late been in this respect, greatly relaxed, yet 
the desire even at present manifested to obtain a 
degree, shows whatever may be said to the contra- 
ry, that this form of testimonial has not by any 
means lost its value. It is always understood to 
mean that a man has passed through that course of 
liberal study, which, in the judgment of the com- 
munity in which he lives, is necessary lo a well 
educated man. It is obvious that such a testimo- 
nial, if conferred with any thing like a strict regard 
to merit and attainment, must be of material value 
to any young man just entering upon the duties of 
active life. It creates a presumption in his favor, 
which is no contemptible advantage. It is the 
guarantee to the public, without examination of 
the candidate, that a certain portion of his life 
has been devoted to liberal studies. And it is 
manifest that the general literary and intellectual 
character of a community must be greatly affected 
by the degree of attainment which this testimonial 
is made to represent. What would be the intel- 
lectual condition of a community if nothing were 
required of the candidate for a degree but a 
knowledge of English Grammar and Geography ; 
that is, if this amount of knowledge were all 



46 

that was required of him who was recognised as a 
liberally educated man. The exclusive power of 
conferring this testimonial being thus given to col- 
legiate institutions, it constitutes a second differ- 
ence between them and private establishments for 
the purpose of education. 

Let us next observe the reason for which these 
privileges are conferred. 

I think it will be admitted without controversy, 
that this capital is not invested and these privi- 
leges are not conferred for the purpose of sup- 
porting instructors in Colleges. They deserve 
nothing more for laboring in this vocation than in 
any other. A man can no more claim a salary 
from the public as a matter of right, because he 
teaches Greek and Geometry, than because he 
teaches English Grammar and Arithmetic. A man 
who teaches the former branches of education 
may incidentally derive benefit from the arrange- 
ments which the community may make with re- 
gard to this subject, but this is not the reason for 
which the community has made them. 

Nor is it, I think, the object of the public, in 
the encouragement which it gives to collegiate 
education, simply to multiply the number of pro- 
fessional men, whether Lawyers, Physicians, or 
Divines. This is a matter which may very well 
be left to individual preferences and individual 
talents. In all intelligent communities, the supply 
of professional labor will commonly be at least 
equal to the demand for it. The demand, as in 
other cases, creates the supply. If this mode of 



47 

labor be lucrative, it will attract producers in suf- 
cient numbers to meet the exigencies of society. 
With respect to two at least of the professions, 
there is more reason at all times to apprehend a 
glut, than a scarcity. 

3. Nor is it the object of these encouragements 
to fix a general standard of acquisition, and then 
induce as large a number as possible to attain to it. 
For, in the first place, it would be difficult if not 
impossible, to hit upon such a standard as would 
meet the wants of those who desire a valuable 
education, and be at the same time within reach 
of all who wished to attain to it. And, besides, 
the only method by which all who desired to 
make this acquisition could be reached, would be 
to give it away altogether. If this were done, it 
would greatly increase the number of those who 
would make this modicum of attainment, but to a 
large portion of them the gift would be worse than 
useless. It would unfit them for more active 
pursuits, and would not enable them to procure a 
sustenance by intellectual exertion. It would 
produce a large amount of very moderately edu- 
cated talent, without giving any real impulse to 
the mental energy of the community. 

4 . The object then for which I suppose these en- 
couragements to a liberal education are given is, 
to furnish means for the most perfect development 
of the intellectual treasures of the country. In 
order to the most perfect condition of any society, 
it is necessary that, whenever unusual talent of any 
kind exists, it be so cultivated as to be able to ac- 



48 

complish the highest results of which it has been 
made capable. This talent is very equally dis- 
tributed among the various orders of society, least 
of all is it limited to the rich. But the means 
for the thorough and radical training of a human 
mind are very expensive. They involve the cost 
of libraries, philosophical apparatus, laboratories, 
and a formidable array of teachers of distinguished 
ability. Were these to be provided by individual 
enterprise, the expense would be so great that 
none but the rich would be educated and by far 
the larger part of the talent of a country must per- 
ish in useless obscurity. Hence arises the reason 
why a large portion of these means, all that which 
involves the outlay of considerable capital, should 
be the property of the public, and why it should 
be open to the use of all who might by the use of 
it be rendered in any way benefactors to the whole. 
The design therefore of university establishments, 
so far as the public is concerned, is not to furnish 
education to the poor or to the rich, not to give 
away a modicum of Greek and Latin and Geom- 
etry to every one who chooses to ask for it, but to 
foster and cultivate the highest talent of the nation, 
and raise the intellectual character of the whole, 
by throwing the brightest light of science in the 
path of those whom nature has qualified to lead. 

From these remarks, we may easily learn the 
nature of that responsibility which devolves upon 
the Trustees or Corporation, or in general, upon 
the visitorial power of a college. The visitors are 
entrusted with all the capital appropriated by the 



49 



public, or by individuals, for carrying forward this 
specific purpose. They have the power of ap- 
pointing and removing all college officers. They 
alone confer degrees, and they determine the 
course of study which shall be pursued by the 
candidate for a degree. They have a general 
power of visitation, and may, within legal and 
constitutional limits, alter or amend or modify the 
course of liberal education as they please, and 
thus to a considerable extent, cause the intellect- 
ual character of the community to be what they 
wish. And when we consider that the Trustees of 
the Colleges in New England alone are intrusted 
with more than a million and a half dollars, ex- 
pressly set apart for the accomplishment of this 
purpose, and that they have the authority to direct 
the energies of a large body of able and indus- 
trious men whose lives are devoted to the labor of 
instruction, I think it will at once appear that few 
offices can be held of greater importance than 
tlieirs ; and that, if our system of education and 
general improvement fail, on them by far the 
greater portion of the responsibility, and of course 
the disgrace of that failure must rest. 

Supposing these principles to be correct, let us 
proceed briefly to- inquire what are the proper 
qualifications for that office in which the visitorial 
power resides. 

1. The members should be capable of fulfilling 
their duties. One of these duties is that of ap- 
pointing teachers, another that of removing thern, 
for incompetency, another that of prescribing the 
4 



60 

course of studies proper to be pursued. Now all 
this supposes a considerable amount of knowl- 
edge, and an acquaintance with the theory, if not 
the practice of education. A school committee 
is considered incompetent to its trust, if it cannot 
decide correctly on the merits of the candidate 
for the mastership of a district school. But it 
is to be remembered that the school committee 
are exactly visitors, and they sustain to the school 
precisely the same relation that a Corporation 
does to a College. Besides, the weight of char- 
acter of such a board depends much upon its 
known learning and ability. I remember to have 
heard when a boy, of a Trustee of a College 
who attended an examination in Greek, and for 
two hours used his book upside down. Were 
these instances frequent, but little respect would 
be paid to the decisions of such a Corporation. 

2. They should be from station and character 
elevated above the reach of personal or collateral 
motives. A College, in order to succeed well, 
must be governed by its own principles. Its object 
is the intellectual cultivaton of the community. So 
long as this is made the governing principle of all 
its arrangements, it will prosper ; for it will accom- 
pHsh the object which men of sense desire to 
see accomplished, and its works will speak for it. 
Bu4 if it be made subservient to any other end, 
it will and it ought to fail. Its Corporation should 
therefore be men who are incapable of acting 
from fear, favor, or affection. In all official acts, 
they should look with equal eye upon the merits 



61 

of the nearest relative, and upon those of a stranger. 
They should know no parties either in politics or 
religion ; and knowing nothing but the duties and 
obligations of their office, should appoint and 
remove solely and entirely for the good of the 
institution of which they are the appointed gov- 
ernors. 

3. They should be few in number. That 
corporations have no conscience I would by no 
means assert, but I believe it will generally hold 
true that their conscience is inversely as their 
number. In large bodies responsibility is too 
much divided. The overawing power of major- 
ities is greater. Party spirit is more readily 
excited and perpetuated, and intrigue is much 
more successfully carried forward. A few men 
who look each other directly in the face, and 
every one of whom feels that he is personally 
responsible to his equals for his acts and his 
opinions, is a safer repository of an important trust 
than a larger, and of course more miscellaneous 
assembly. 

4. They should be chosen for a term of time, 
and not for life. A body chosen for life is pecu- 
liarly liable to attacks of somnolency. Every 
thing in such a society tends in a remarkable 
degree to repose. Inefficient men, like Jeffer- 
son's office holders, " rarely die and never resign." 
Yet the period of office should not be so brief 
as to interfere with the steadfastness of plan 
and comprehensiveness of design. It would 
probably be wise to construct a board in such a 



62 - 

manner that a portion should go out of office 
every two or three years. In this manner a 
majority would always remain acquainted with 
the affairs of the institution and able to resist 
any premature and unadvised changes. It is no 
small advantage to be able to drop an inefficient 
member of any corporation. 

5. They should, if possible, be elected by 
some body out of themselves to whom they 
should be responsible. This would do much to 
secure efficiency and would leave opportunity 
to apply suitable correctives whenever they 
became necessary. If this cannot be done, they 
should annually make a report of their doings ; 
so that their acts may in some way come under 
the supervision of the public. 

I think it manifest that, in a collegiate system, 
the visitorial power in order to discharge its 
duties with efficiency, in other words, to perform 
the functions for which it is created, should be 
chosen for the reasons, and somewhat in the man- 
ner that I have here indicated. When, however, 
I speak of their efficiency, I do not suppose it 
necessary that they should be always present, 
superintending every act, and directing every 
recitation. Much less do I intend that they 
should usurp the powers and functions of the 
faculty of instruction. These last have their own 
proper office, and their peculiar responsibilities 
and duties; and these are no more to be incroach- 
ed upon by the board of visitors, than by any 
one else, A system, in order to work well, 



53 



must be pervaded in every member by vital 
energy, each part performing in its own appro- 
priate functions in harmony with the rest, but yet 
not interfered with by them. It is the business 
of the visitorial power so to construct the system, 
so to arrange its various stimulants and so to 
bring then to bear upon every department, that the 
machine will go of itself without perpetual tink- 
ering. The principles must be laid down and 
the laws enacted, but these laws must be executed 
by the faculty, and in the execution of these, 
their appropriate duties, they must be free and 
independent. But they should be free and inde- 
pendent within law ; and should be so situated 
that every man shall receive the result of his 
own actions, whether that result be success or 
failure. 

Let us now examine the visitorial power as 
it exists among us, and observe how far it 
corresponds in its organization with the above 
principles. 

1 . Are the boards of colleges chosen simply 
in view of their qualifications, for this peculiar 
office ? Are they, in general capable of judging 
of the qualifications of the persons whom they 
appoint, or of their success after they have been 
appointed. Are they specially interested in the 
subject of education ? Do they, in consequence 
of their appointment to this office, make the sub- 
ject of education their particular study ? Do 
they as a matter of duty devote any portion of 
their time to this particular labor ? Are they 



64 

chosen for political, or sectarian, or other reasons, 
instead of those which have been here suggested ? 
The answer to these questions it is not necessary 
that I should suggest. Every one acquainted 
with the practical working of our collegiate sys- 
tem, can answer them as well as I. 

By these remarks I hope it will not be supposed 
that I am capable of the least feeling of disrespect 
towards those of my fellow citizens who hold this 
office. I know them to be frequently chosen from 
the best men in the land ; and I believe that they 
will be the last to take offence at any suggestions 
which are neccessary to a full discussion of this 
subject. I speak not of the men but of the sys- 
tem. They have rarely if ever sought the places 
which they occupy ; and have generally accepted 
them at the wish of the friends of the institutions 
which they represent. They were not expected 
to perform any labor, and they have not supposed 
that it was their duty to perform any. It is the 
error not merely of boards of visitors, but of the 
community. The importance of the subject has 
been forgotten, and hence every one of its depart- 
ments has suffered the effects of that forgetful- 
ness. 

2. With regard to personal honor, our Boards 
are I believe as unexceptionable men as could any 
where be found. They could not easily be in- 
duced from personal considerations to deviate 
from what they believe to be the course best adapt- 
ed to secure the good of the institutions which 
they govern. That when appointed by Legisla- 



55 

tures they have not sometimes been influenced by 
political considerations I would not be so ready 
to affirm. The temptation to error in this respect 
arises sometimes from differences in religious be- 
lief. Almost every college in this country is either 
originally, or by sliding from its primitive founda- 
tion, under the control of some religious sect. 
Hence it is in matters of this kind taken for granted 
that the predominance of that sect, if not its ex- 
clusive occupation of office, is at all events to be 
maintained. This, according to the circumstances 
of the case may be just or unjust, and the Board 
may be as they frequently are, tied down by enact- 
ments of the founder ; but from what principles 
soever it may proceed, it of course limits compe- 
tition ; and instead of placing an institution on its 
proper basis that of a seminary of learning, it 
places it in a complicated position in which a part 
of its energies are wasted upon an extraneous 
object. I do not say that this alliance of two ob- 
jects is unnecessary or unwise. I am fully 
aware of the aids which religion has extended to 
learning. This union may prevent greater evils 
than it engenders ; nay it may be that without the 
aid of religious sects, our colleges would scarcely 
have existed. I refer to the subject merely as a 
matter for consideration and in order that it may 
be suitably 'weighed. If it be a necessary evil 
let us have no more of the evil than is necessary 
to the attainment of good. 

I say that our error arises, in part, from this 
source. But it is only in part. The feeling 



66 



which pervades us on this subject, I think, is, that 
a college requires to be patronized, that it must be 
recommended to tiie public by an array of names 
of such distinguished persons as are understood to 
countenance it. A list of such names at the head 
of its catalogue of officers, is supposed to add 
dignity to the institution, and at the same time to 
offer a guaranty to parents that the institution will 
be well conducted. It is understood that the du- 
ties to be discharged, are merely nominal, and the 
honor of the place is a full compensation for the 
appearance of responsibility which it imposes. 
It is given and received and held as a ceremony. 
It stands between the public and the College ; I 
had almost said, depriving both of the influence 
which each would exert on the other. If it at- 
tempt to carry out the wishes of the public, act- 
ing with imperfect knowledge of the subject, it is 
very liable to act wrong. If it act not at all, it 
still serves as a shield to protect the faculty from 
observation, and from the just result of negligence 
in office. Said Jeremy Bentham on one occa- 
sion, "• I do not like Boards, for," added he, 
punning upon the word, " Boards are always 
fences.''^ That they are liable to be, is evident. 
That it need not to be so I believe. That it 
would not be so if the gentlemen who hold this 
office, were aware of the responsibility which 
really rests upon them, I confidently trust. It is 
for the honest purpose of setting before them this 
responsibility, that these pages are written. They 
ought not to allow themselves to be used by way 



67 

of guaranty, unless they really act as guarantees. 
If they allow a college to rely upon their names, 
instead of relying upon its own ability and skill, 
they will injure instead of benefit the cause of 
Education. 

3. The number of persons composing our 
boards of trustees is various. It rarely if ever 
falls below twelve, and sometimes rises as high as 
fifty. Where there are two Boards composing the 
Corporation, it is, I think, sometimes even larger 
than the latter number. Where important res- 
ponsibility is confided, and efficient action is con- 
templated, I imagine that twelve is the greatest 
number compatible with success. Our Boards 
are, therefore, if I mistake not, by far too large. 

4. The offices in our Boards of trustees are 
held alm.ost universally for life. The vacances 
which occur are filled by themselves. Hence they 
are responsible to no one. Their proceedings 
are rarely published. In such a case the large 
majority having been in office from time immemo- 
rial, the tendency is almost irresistable to allow 
things to continue as they have been. In this 
respect our organization is as defective as it can 
be. 

So far as we have proceeded, it will, I think, 
appear evident that this part of our collegiate sys- 
tem was originally formed without any reflection 
upon the duties which these officers were called to 
discharge and without any inquiry into the mode 
in which the discharge of those duties could be 
most successfully secured. The plan first adopt- 



58 

ed has been somewhat servilely followed, and no 
attention has as yet been directed to the question 
how it might be changed for the better. And yet 
I think it must be evident that upon this part of 
the system more than any other, the improvement 
and perfection of any plan of education mainly 
depends. The reader who wishes to see this sub- 
ject discussed with great learning and ability, will 
find much to interest him in an article on Univer- 
sity Patronage, in the Edinburgh Review, No. 1 1 9, 
for April, 1834; I presume from the pen of Sir 
William Hamilton, Professor of Logic, in Edin- 
burgh University. 

But perhaps it may be said that although the 
organization of our system be defective, yet its 
duties are faithfully performed. It may be the 
case that the members of our collegiate boards in 
New England are deeply impressed with the fact 
that the intellectual character of the nation de- 
pends for its elevation and development emphati- 
cally upon themselves, and that under the full im- 
pression of this solemn conviction they are seri- 
ously engaged in discharging the duties of their 
high vocation, that our higher seminaries owe that 
portion of success which they have attained to the 
efforts and labors of the visitorial power. I say 
all this may be, but I think it is not commonly so 
understood. I fear that the public does not ex- 
pect, nor do the boards of trustees generally per- 
form any labor of this kind. Nor are they great- 
ly to blame for this. It arises from a want of 
attention directed seriously to the.subject. 



59 

Or again it may be said that our colleges are so 
organized as to need no such supervision as that of 
which I have spoken. I here say nothing of the 
individual officers composing the College Faculties 
in our country. More amiable, intelligent, and up- 
right men could rarely be selected ; but I say that 
the system of our colleges more than almost any 
other, requires a special supervision. The offi- 
cers are paid by salary, their remuneration in the 
same college is generally equal, good or ill success 
has but a small and indirect power to increase or 
diminish it ; there is involved in the system no 
appeal to pecuniary interest or love of distinction. 
In this absence of all the usual stimulants to 
effort, it is manifest that the motive arising from 
the knowledge that their labors are seen and ap- 
preciated by those in whom the community has 
reposed this high trust, must be in the highest de- 
gree salutary, if not absolutely indispenslble. — 
There are no men in our country from whom im- 
portant labor is expected whose position is so arti- 
ficial and so at variance with the ordinary principles 
of human action as the officers of American Col- 
leges. Were they not honorable and virtuous 
men, they would not accomplish the tenth part of 
what they do. 

If the above suggestions be well founded, it 
will appear evident that one step, not to say the 
very first step, in the improvement of American 
Colleges will be the improved organization of the 
Boards of Trustees or of Visitors. It seems to 
me that either they have a real and most impor- 



60 

tant duty to discharge, or else they have none at 
all. If no duty really devolve upon thetn, then 
the office which they hold had better be abolished, 
since by standing between the Instructors and the 
public, it diminishes the responsibility of teach- 
ers, and is thus injurious to the system. If the 
office which they hold be really and vitally impor- 
tant, then it follows that those who hold it should 
be so organized as to be able to discharge its du- 
ties in the best possible manner. They should be 
placed under such responsibilities as will best stim- 
ulate them to labor in their appropriate office with 
zeal, efficiency and honor. 

To all this I well know that many objections 
may be urged. For instance, it may be said that 
Colleges commonly, are eleemosynary corpora- 
tions, bound by the law of the founder, and that 
the present arrangements are frequently a part of 
that foundation. This is true, and so far as it is 
true, I see not how amendment can take place, 
except by intrusting the whole visitorial power to 
a small and responsible committee. It may be 
said again, that colleges are frequently endowed 
by a sect for the particular purpose of educating 
men for the gospel ministry, and that they would 
not consent to throw open the whole system on 
the simple grounds which I have mentioned. 
Here again may be an insuperable obstacle. Or 
again it may be said that the plan of appointing 
Boards of Trustees for a term of years by Legis- 
latures, has failed in consequence of the malign 
influence of party politics. All this I admit. If 



61 

politicians, like Virgil's harpies, will insist on de- 
filing what they cannot eat, I know of no remedy 
that can be anticipated from that source. Or 
again, it may be said that there is not interest 
enough on this subject in the community to carry 
forward any change in this respect ; or that if the 
theory of the system were changed, it would inev- 
itably fail in practice, inasmuch as it would be im- 
possible to find men competent to such a trial, or 
that if found competent they would not give to it 
the time and labor necessary for the successful 
discharge of its duties. If this be so, I grant the 
case to be hopeless. The other obstacles might 
be surmounted. Where there is a will there is a 
way. But for indifference on such a subject, 
there is no cure ; and we must wait until the com- 
munity attain to a higher sense of social and moral 
obligation. 

Supposing however, all this to be so, two con- 
clusions will follow. If there exist not in the 
community, sufficient energy and self denying 
effort to carry forward institutions of learning, let 
the blame be laid at the right door. Let not col- 
leges be blamed for not doing what the apathy of 
the community renders impossible to be done. 
Instead of changing college courses, and trying 
experiments on college discipline, let us strive to 
arouse the nation to a conviction of the impor- 
tance of the subject. Let us strive to cure the 
ailing member. If the heart be diseased, let us 
DOt persist in blistering the head. If the commu- 
Dity will take an intelligent interest in the subject, 



62 

all the other disorders will easily remedy them- 
selves. 

But, if we despair of this, and whether or not 
it must be dispaired of, every man must judge for 
himself; then another idea suggests itself; the 
system must be changed. The present system 
rests fundamentally on the power of visitation. 
The board, as I have said, is really in the place 
of the public. If it cannot be so constructed that 
it shall be able to discharge its functions, then let it 
be abolished, and let the rest of the system be so 
constructed that this deficiency may be supplied in 
some other manner. 



Sect. 2. Of the Faculty^ or Officers of In- 
struction. 

In speaking of the nature of a private school, 
in the preceding section, I have remarked that 
such an establishment is simply an arrangement 
between the parent and the instructor. The pa- 
rent ascertains for himself the character of the 
instructor, and acts accordingly. If he find that 
he has been deceived, he seeks another teacher. 
Any other instructor may be employed to perform 
the service, no one having any prescriptive privi- 
leges more than another. But, in the case of a 
public institution, the circumstances are changed. 



6S 

Here, the community have granted a special privi- 
lege, that of conferring degrees, and this degree 
can be obtained no where else but from a College 
or University. Besides, the public having under- 
taken to superintend such institutions, have en- 
dowed them with the public money, and have 
virtually promised to take care that this money be 
well appropriated ; and that the education there 
given shall be as perfect as the circumstances of 
the community shall render practicable. 

Such being the case, it is clearly necessary to 
such a system, that the best teachers be appointed, 
and that they he placed under such conditions that 
all the motives to diligence and success which 
ever impel men to their duty, shall be called 
into action here. 

And first, as to the mode of securing the best 
men for instructors. In order to accomplish this 
result, the appointing power should most properly 
reside with the visitorial corporation. They have 
no interest to subserve, and if they are able and 
willing to perform their duty, all that is needful 
can be done. But supposing this be the case, 
how shall they ascertain the desert of the candi- 
date. In Scotland, elections to professorships 
depend I believe, mainly on family, or political, or 
ecclesiastical interest. In England, Professors 
are generally appointed by such persons as the 
statutes of the founder may have ordained, and 
their offices are generally bestowed as the reward 
of successful scholarship, and are not considered 
as a part of the working system of the university. 



64 

In France, all appointments in most of the de- 
partments, are made to depend upon a rigorous 
and searching examination of the candidates by a 
competent board ; and on the examination, which 
the candidates conduct, of each other. In Ger- 
many, as every graduate may obtain a license to 
teach in the University, every one has an opportu- 
nity of showing to the public his ability, and of 
thus enforcing his claim to the honors of a vacant 
chair. What mode should be adopted with us I 
pretend not to decide, but that it should be such as 
to secure the highest amount of talent and skill, is, 
I think, evident. It should therefore be such as to 
allow free competition, and it should involve such 
tests as would inevitably secure the public against 
imposition, and it should be conducted with per- 
fect impartiality. Were professorships in all our 
colleges open to competition, and were every can- 
didate sure that the election would be decided 
upon the merits of the case, the stimulus to intel- 
lectual cultivation in this country would be greatly 
increased, and the honor of an academical ap- 
pointment immeasurably augmented. 

Secondly. The tenure and the emoluments of 
office should, as far as possible, be made to de- 
pend upon the labor and the success of the incum- 
bent. A small salary might properly be guaran- 
teed to bin), and the rest should depend upon him- 
self. This might be acccomplished by authorizing 
him to receive payment for tickets. This would 
however b^ of no avail if every person were 
obhged to take a ticket who was a candidate for a 



65 

degree, unless parallel professorships were appoint- 
ed in case the regular incumbent failed to satisfy 
just expectation. Were professors, appointed in 
the manner I have suggested, ihey would be placed 
under the same motives to labor as any other man. 
Every one knowing that his emolument and dis- 
tinction would be increased in proportion to his 
exertion, would throw his whole soul into his 
work, and the public would thus derive the benefit 
of his full and concentrated mental effort. Were 
this the case also, there would be no difficulty in 
equalizing labor. Where labor brings its appro- 
priate reward, it is rather sought after than de- 
clined. Every man, in such a case, is desirous of 
doing all in his power, and of doing it as well as 
he can. In this most important point, therefore, 
the necessity of visitation is to a considerable de- 
gree removed, since the system is so arranged 
that it will go of itself. 

If these are the true principles cgi which officers 
of instruction in colleges should be ai)pointed and 
continued, our system in this country is defective 
in several particulars. 

The whole power theoretically rests with the 
Corporation, or Board of visitors. This re- 
quires no alteration. But let us inquire how are 
appointments generally made ? Is any compe- 
tition invited or even admitted ? Are the candi- 
dates ever examined as to their fitness for the 
office to be filled ? Are any means taken to enable 
the board to secure the best man that the office 
will command ? So far as I know, this is very 
5 



66 

imperfectly done, if it be done at all. In some 
of our Southern Colleges I know that vacancies 
are announced and candidates are invited to send 
in their testimonials. Upon the strength of these 
testimonials elections are generally made. But 
no one who has any practical acquaintance with 
the manner in which testimonials are commonly 
procured, would rely upon them in any matter 
of importance. The testimonials of a candidate, 
if procured by himself, are too frequently evidence 
of his perseverance, rather than of any other quali- 
fication. 

But it may be asked, if this method is not 
adopted, how are appointments made. I answer, 
generally, I believe, upon the recommendation of 
the faculty. The Faculty have in theory no 
voice in the appointment of their colleagues, but 
inasmuch as the Board to which this duty spe- 
cially appertains, is unable to devote to it the 
attention which ^ts importance demands, they are 
commonly obliged to perform an office which 
does not properly belong to them. They gen- 
erally from the persons within their knowledge 
select one who in their opinion is best suited to 
the office, and their wishes, are acquiesced in 
by the Corporation. Thus they really nominate 
and the corporation appoint. But since where 
there is a good understanding between the parties, 
their nomination is almost always confirmed, they 
may be considered as in fact filling their own 
vacancies, and making their own appointments. 

As the system is at present constructed, this 



67 

probably is the best method which could be de- 
vised. When Boards having no deep interest 
in education, and unaware of their responsibility, 
make appointments without consuhing the officers 
of instruction, they are liable to influence from 
motives from without, either political, or secta- 
rian, or personal. I have known instances 
in which most unsuitable candidates have thus 
been elected, and imposed for life upon a college 
faculty. This is a case of most aggravated injus- 
tice. It is not only a sacrifice of the great 
interests of education to the most contemptible 
selfishness, but it obliges a number of industrious 
and worthy men to support an inefficient, nay 
sometimes an injurious colleague, out of their own 
honest earnings. 1 do not say, that any honor- 
able men would be guilty of so great a wrong, if 
they would pause to reflect upon the consequences 
of their action ; but honorable men, when associ- 
ated together, not unfrequently, by reason of 
thoughtlessness, are responsible for wrongs which 
individually ihey would be the last to justify. 

But it must be evident that the officers of in- 
struction themselves must be greatly embarrassed 
in the selection of the candidate \\bomthey would 
recommend for appointment. In the first place, the 
situation is by no means easily to be filled. It re- 
quires a great variety of qualifications, which do not 
always ijieet in the same person. A teacher, in 
addition to learning in his particular department, 
must have ability to communicate knowledge. 
He must also be a disciplinarian, competent to 



68 

control his classes and excite them to diligence, 
and prompt to bear his share of labor in main- 
taining the good order of the College. Besides 
this, as officers in an American college are so 
intimately associated together, he must be a man 
of amiable manners, and sufficiently well endowed 
with radical good nature and spontaneous fellow 
feeling. Now all these are not always associated 
in the same person. 

In the next place, the Faculty have but little 
range of selection. They are restricted in a 
considerable degree within the list of their own 
graduates. Those who have left the institution 
for several years are commonly deficient in the 
habits and the peculiar learning necessary to the 
successful discharge of professorial duty ; and 
moreover, but few of them if well established in 
an active profession could be induced to return 
to the confinement of a college ; specially by 
such remuneration for their labor as a college 
would be able to offer. The tutorial office con- 
stitutes a good school for professors, but then 
it is held for a short time, and is commonly re- 
linquished before the incumbent has attained to 
sufficient age and reputation to render him a promi- 
nent candidate for a professorship. In this 
manner, the choice of a faculty, when a vacancy 
in their number occurs, is commonly much re- 
stricted as well as embarrassed. As no competition 
is offered, they know not who will take office. As 
no examination is ever sustained they have but 
imperfect means of ascertaining either the present 



69 

ability or the future promise of the candidate. 
Hence they are obliged to feel about in the dark, 
and after balancing the various points in the case, 
recommend the person who, upon the whole, 
promises to succeed the best. 

But suppose now an officer appointed who is 
well adapted to the discharge of his duties. The 
emolument which h© receives is perhaps greater 
than he would receive for the first few years of 
his life in another profession, but vastly less than 
he could ordinarily receive after he became well 
established in it. It is by salary, and it is com- 
monly unchanged during his whole continuance in 
office. At first he labors assiduously to prepare 
himself for success in his department. He in a 
few years attains to all the knowledge which, 
owing to the fixed nature of our system, he is able 
to communicate. Beyond this his calling presents 
to him no reason for advancing. Were he ever 
so much distinguished, his compensation would be 
no greater nor his field of scientific labor more 
extensive. Beyond his own associates and his 
small class of pupils, no one is aware either of his 
labors or of their success. Under these circum- 
stances one of these results will commonly ensue. 
Either he will settle down into a willingness to be 
satisfied with that to which he has already attained, 
or he will devote himself to writing for the press, 
and thus employ his most valuable energies, while 
the College receives only the remainder, or else 
he will engage in part in some secular or profes- 
sional pursuit from the emolument of which he may 
meet his increasing expenses. 



70 

But suppose the case to be reversed. Sup- 
pose that an unsuitable man has been appointed, 
and that he is unable from want of talent, learning, 
or industry to discharge with effect the duties of 
his office. His instruction is known to be almost 
worthless. He goes through his routine of duty 
mechanically and every student in turn is obhged 
to attend upon his appointed exercises. He per- 
forms the least possible amount of labor consistent 
with physical obedience to the law. The College 
suffers. The mdolence originating in his depart- 
ment either spreads into all the others, or must be 
counteracted by the increased effort of his associ- 
ates. In the mean time the number of students 
in consequence of his inefficiency diminishes, and 
the means of the institution are impaired. He is 
not only supported by his associates, but they 
are, by his failure rendered less able to support 
either him or themselves. Suppose all this, and 
what, I ask, is the remedy. 

It may be said that the corporation has the 
power of removal. True, but for what cause 
except incompetency ? And who does not know 
that this is one of the most difficult things to be 
proved ? Where is the standard of competency, 
and how is it to be applied in this case. That 
he does not do his duty, every body knows. 
That the College is suffering from his incompe- 
tency, no one doubts. But is he so incompetent 
that he must be dismissed, and his living taken 
away .'' What can he do if he is removed ? 
These are the questions tha,t would b,^ asked at 



71 

once, instead of the question whether it be righu 
for a man to get his living by wasting the time and 
ruining the intellectual habits of all the young men 
who are so unfortunate as to come under his 
charge. 

But suppose that a deficieny be palpable and 
capable of proof sufficient to satisfy any rea- 
sonable man. How is action in the premises to 
be commenced. The matter belongs wholly to 
the Corporation, or Board of visitors. It is essen- 
tially a part of the visitorial power and one of 
the special purposes for which that power was 
created. But, in the first place, this Board as I 
have said never attends the recitations, lectures 
or examinations ; or, if they do, they never attend 
for this purpose. They are not always quali- 
fied to judge. And again who is to be the pros- 
ecutor. In such a case men almost always 
throw the burden of an unpleasent duty upon 
each other, that is, throw it off entirely. Here 
then but little relief is to be expected. The 
only remaining hope is in the Faculty. But is it 
their duty ? Ought it to be in honor or consis- 
tency devolved upon them ? Should they be 
obliged to make known the deficiencies of each 
other ? Suppose that urged by conscience and ne- 
cessity they represent the case to the corporation, 
at once there will be raised the cry of persecu- 
tion ; and those who yesterday complained most 
loudly of the deficiency in instruction, will, to 
day, be loudest in the denunciation of the only- 
means by which it can be remedied. 



72 

But suppose all this to have been overcome, 
and the case to be honestly brought before the 
visitorial power. The incumbent is incompetent. 
But he was appointed without examination. Is 
he more incompetent than he was when appoint- 
ed ? His sins are sins of omission, how shall these 
be proved. If then he be a man destitute of honor 
and public spirit and determined to hold fast to 
the emoluments of an ofilce while incompetent to 
the discharge of its duties, it may be very difficult 
to relieve the institution of the incubus. In 
the face of all these obstacles, is it remarkable if a 
Faculty bear for life an infliction of this sort, and 
see their labors rendered comparatively useless, 
and the young men committed to their charge 
wasting a large portion of their time, and look on 
in hopeless despondency because they know of no 
practicable method of relief. I have myself known 
of a case in which a gentleman utterly unfit for 
his office was appointed to preside over a very 
important department of college education ; for 
more than twenty years he kept that department 
down under the intolerable pressure of his own 
inefficiency ; and thus more than twenty classes of 
young men were sent out into the world without 
any adequate instruction in one branch of their 
education ; w-ithout the mental discipline which 
this portion of study ought to have afforded ; by 
so much unfitted for the study of a profession, and 
prepared only to depress the standard of educa- 
tion whenever they were employed as instructors. 
I think that any sober man will agree with me that 



73 



this is a serious evil. But, I ask, where in our 
present collegiate system, shall we find the reme- 
dy ? And is it not time that a remedy be pro- 
vided ? 

How often cases of this kind occur, it is not for 
me to say. In showing that they are liable to 
occur, I have shown the defect of the system. 
Its tendency is to offer a bounty for indolence and 
incapacity, for it rewards them as well as industry 
and talent. Things always follow their tendencies. 
Hence, in so far as the system has any effect, that 
effect is to depress the energy of the laborious by 
obliging them to bear a gratuitous and unreasonable 
burden. Nor is this by any means the worst point 
of the case. Its tendency is to keep down the 
standard of education, and expose the best por- 
tion of a young man's life to shameful and ruinous 
waste. 

But it may be asked, have not our colleges on 
the whole, done well for the country, and are they 
not deserving of the public patronage. I answer 
most sincerely in the affirmative. They are in 
the main well officered ; and the incumbents are 
generally able and industrious men. But what 
they accomplish is done not in any manner through 
the co-operation of the system, but in defiance of 
it. If they do so much when laboring at every 
disadvantage, what might they not accomplish 
were their energies uncramped, and a free field of 
professional enterprise opened before them. The 
fact is that in this country every one must labor, 
or be supposed to labor. The whole College Fac- 



74 

uliy as a body must perform the labor necessary to 
a respectable discharge of their duties, or the 
whole system would go down. What one will 
not or cannot do, must some how or other be done 
by some one else ; and besides this, there is, with 
every high minded and public spirited man, a love 
for the labor in which he is engaged, and a willing- 
ness to make sacrifices of personal ease, and even 
of personal reputation, to support the character of 
an institution of which he forms a part. These 
high qualtities have conspired in no small degree 
to maintain our colleges at the point of respecta- 
bility to which they have attained. I can with the 
most delightful recollections bear witness to their 
existence ; and I do from my soul mourn that they 
are obliged to be exerted in so unfavorable a 
field and under so many and almost intolerable 
discouragements. These however are as we shall 
see but a part of the difficulties under which the 
Instructors in American colleges are obliged to 
labor. 

From what has been advanced I think it will be 
sufficiently obvious that our system in these re- 
spects is susceptible of important improvement. 
It requires to be so constructed that every man 
shall receive the result of his own actions, and not 
of the actions of another. In order to accom- 
plish this one of two things as it seems to me must 
be done, either the appointment to office must 
be made by examination, and be subject to strict 
and impartial supervision, including removal from 
office at the judgment of the Board of Visitors ; 



75 



or else every officer must be so situated that his 
emolument will in the nature of the case depend 
upon his desert, so that if his instruction be 
worthless, no one will be obliged to pay him for it, 
and if it be valuable, it may attract pupils accord- 
ing to its value. In this manner, a remedy will 
be applied by the system itself, and thus the ma- 
chine will, so far as this point is concerned, go 
alone. Suppose that this plan had been adopted 
from the first commencement of our literary insti- 
tutions, no one can conceive the change which 
would have been effected in their power. A pro- 
fessional career would have been opened to every 
collegiate instructor as wide, and as far reaching as 
to men in every other department of intellectual 
exertion. Talent of the highest rank would have 
been attracted to our colleges. Emulation of the 
loftiest character would have been awakened. In- 
stead of a great number of , small and ill supported 
Colleges, we should have had a small number of 
real and efficient Universities. 1 believe that this 
change alone would have increased the learning 
and intellectual vigor of the nation an hundred 
fold. 



76 



Sect. 3. Of Collegiate Education. 

We have considered the collegiate system, 
so far as it concerns the visitorial and execu- 
tive branches. This presents us with a view 
of the working powers of the machine. We 
next proceed to consider what it undertakes to ac- 
complish. We shall comprise this under two 
heads, Education and Discipline. Our business, 
at present, is with Education proper. 

I have already remarked, that in imitation of 
the English Universities, our collegiate course 
was, at the beginning, fixed at a period of four 
years. The studies of each class occupy one 
year. There are, therefore, in every College, 
four classes ; and a regular student passes in suc- 
cession through them all. The studies of each 
year are fixed by statute. Every student is sup- 
posed to be a candidate for a degree, and of course 
every one passes through the whole course. This 
period of study is designed to occupy the time 
which intervenes between leaving the academy 
and entering upon a profession, and is supposed 
to be sufiicient to obtain the knowledge which 
society requires in a well educated man. It is, I 
suppose, the most important period in the pre- 
paratory portion of a young man's life. 

If, as I have said, the design of public semi- 
naries is specially to develope, and cultivate to the 
highest perfection, the intellectual power of the 
nation, the education given during this period 



77 

should be of the very highest order. The 
knowledge communicated should be of the greatest 
value ; the intellectual discipline prescribed should 
be rigid, vigorous and noble ; and all the powers, 
whether of acquisition, investigation, discovery, 
or communication, should be thoroughly and gen- 
erously fostered. A system will accomplish the 
purposes for which it was intended, in proportion 
as it succeeds in producing these results. On this 
subject, however, I need not enlarge. The ne- 
cessity of thorough collegiate education has been 
so often and so ably set forth by others, that I 
may proceed at once to the more practical details 
of our system. 

The knowledge required by the candidate, for 
entrance, in the early history of our Colleges, was 
not, so far as I have been able to discover, ma- 
terially different from that required now. I how- 
ever here refer specially to those Colleges which 
were founded during the Colonial period of this 
country. There was then demanded as the con- 
dition for entrance, a considerable acquaintance 
with Greek and Latin, together with the usual 
amount of knowledge derived from the English 
language. The number of books required, was 
undoubtedly less ; but the knowledge of the 
languages was, I think, in general more critical 
than that at present given in most of our prepara- 
tory academies. I presume that the knowledge 
with which President Edwards and the young men 
of his day entered Yale or Harvard Colleges, 
would have admitted them, without reproach, into 
most of our Colleges at the present day. 



78 

The fact T believe to be this. During our Colonial 
history, a large portion of our teachers were di- 
rectly from Oxford and Cambridge Universities, 
and many of our young men who entered the 
learned professions here, completed their educa- 
tion abroad. The consequence was that the tone 
of classical education was elevated, and our acad- 
emies were well sustained. After the Revolution, 
this communication with the older country, except 
formatters of business, ceased. Men were ex- 
tensively engaged in the accumulation of wealth 
and the character of education deteriorated, and after 
some years had passed, it had sunk lamentably 
low. It has since improved, but I doubt whether 
in many points it has yet surpassed its ante-revo- 
lutionary standing. 

So much for entrance to our Colleges at the 
time of their foundation. The Colleges them- 
selves adopted in substance the same course of 
education as the institutions which they had taken 
for their models. This course consisted of the 
study of Latin, Greek and Mathematics, Logic, 
Elementary Theology, and a small amount of Nat- 
ural Philosophy. There were no means afforded 
for gratuitous instruction. Every man was left to 
provide for himself; and hence the effort to obtain 
an education rendered an education doubly valua- 
ble. Four years, as now, was the period allotted 
to the course. The number of subjects of study 
was limited. A larger opportunity was allowed 
for the thorough research and original investiga- 
tion, and if I do not mistake, the effect of the 



79 

Colleges upon the community was powerful and 
beneficial. 

The question here forces itself upon us, are 
our Colleges at the present day, better or worse 
instruments for effecting mental cultivation, than 
they were before the Revolution ? The circum- 
stances of the community are so changed, that 
probably it would be difficult to form a correct opin- 
ion upon the subject. Yet if we suppose that the ob- 
ject of such institutions is to cultivate and develope 
to the highest perfection the best minds of the coun- 
try, and if we estimate their success by the degree 
in which this result has been attained, and com- 
pare this portion of the public mind before and 
during the revolution with the same portion now, 
no one can contemplate the earlier literary institu- 
tions of this country without the most profound 
respect. Compare the Pulpit for fifty years be- 
fore the revolution, as it appears in the press, 
with the pulpit fifty years after that event. Look 
at the Bar in all the colonies, read the speeches 
and discussions to which the revolutionary struggle 
gave occasiori^ ; observe the ripe learning, the 
acuteness, the sagacity, the knowledge of law, of 
the philosophy of human rights, which is manifest 
on every page, and compare these with the dis- 
cussions on many similar topics as they are found 
in the various conventions for constitution-making, 
with which our age abounds, and I must say that 
our fathers, if they blush, must blush for their de- 
scendents. Chatham declared that nothing in 
Thucydides was to be compared to our revolu- 



80 

tionary papers. ''There were giants in those 
days." In looking back upon them, we sympa- 
thise with Nestor, who always referred to the pe- 
riod, three generations ago, when he was the friend 
and coadjutor of heroes and demigods. If these 
men are a true exponent of the character of the 
instruction given at our older Colleges in the first 
period of their existence, these institutions have 
surely no reason to be ashamed of their alumni. 

But to return from this discussion. We see 
that the College course, at the period of their first 
establishment, commenced substantially where it 
commences now. The same time, four years, 
has been allotted to it in both cases. But, let us ob- 
serve the different amount of knowledge for which 
in the two cases the college system is held respon- 
sible. The Mathematical course has been greatly 
extended. The same is true of Natural Philoso- 
phy in all its branches. Optics has become near- 
ly a distinct science. Chemistry, Geology, Po- 
litical Economy have since that time, almost be- 
gun to exist. Intellectual Philosophy and Rhet- 
oric have been either added to the course, or else 
have been greatly enlarged, and the same may be 
said of Physiology. All these additions have 
been made to the studies required of him who is a 
candidate for a degree, and all these must be pur- 
sued by every student. Besides all this, the num- 
ber of books prescribed in the course of Latin 
and Greek, is very much increased. The amount 
which the college is required to teach, is doubled, 
if not trebled, but the time in which all this is to 
be done, remains to a day just as it was before. 



81 

The principles which have led to this result^ 
seem to be something like the following. It has 
been assumed that every young man who goes to 
College, must take a degree ; that he who takes a 
degree, must be acquainted with all branches of 
knowledge not strictly professional, and that he 
must acquire all this knowledge in the four years 
subsequent to his leaving the Academy. The 
least reflection will convince every well informed 
man, that this demand is made under conditions 
that render the demand itself absurd. Johnson, 
somewhere, when speaking of Milton's skill in in- 
struction, remarks, that let the capacity of the 
teacher be what it may, his ability to teach, must 
be limited by tho capacity of the pupil to learn. 
Does any one believe it to be in the power of 
young men to acquire all this knowledge, in such 
a manner as to insure valuable mental discipline, 
within this time. In conversing with English and 
Scottish instructors on this subject, when I stated 
the amount and the number of studies pursued by 
the students in American Colleges, I received the 
uniform and spontaneous reply, " The thing is 
impossible. You cannot do that work in that 
lime." I think that every reflecting person will 
acknowledge that they were in the right. 

Let us now consider briefly the effect which 
must be produced by crowding into the space of 
four years an amount of study so great that it can- 
not be thoroughly accomplished. And first, let 
us observe its effect upon the pupil. The object 
of education is to communicate knowledge and to 
6 



82 

confer discipline. But time enters as an element 
into both of these results. A man cannot acquire 
knowledge by cursory reading, or by rapid unre- 
flecting mental action. In order to fix our con- 
ceptions in the recollection, they must be thor- 
oughly mastered, deliberately reflected upon, and 
surveyed in all their bearings and relations. Nor 
is this all, they must be reviewed and re-examined, 
until they are safely lodged in the memory ; nor 
until this is done can they assume the name of 
knowledge. And yet more, the mind, if it would 
acquire discipline must investigate subjects for 
itself, compare the results arrived at by other 
minds, weigh and balance contradictory reasonings, 
and, on all points of speculative importance, put 
forth original action and come to its own mature 
and well wrought decision. Thus only can it be 
prepared for the labors of active life, where, left 
alone, it must, on every subject before it, decide 
in the main for itself. Now every one sees that 
this is not the work of hurry or thoughtlessness. 
It is very different from merely getting a lesson, and 
requires time and deliberation, and vigorous labor. 
In estimating the amount of study proper for 
a collegiate course it is to be remarked that 
several of the quantities are fixed. We have 
ourselves limited the time to four years. Again, 
the ability of the students is fixed. Young men 
at this age, or men at any age, are able to do a 
certain amount and no more. Again, the diligence 
of pupils in general is limited to a certain degree; 
that is, there is an average amount of it, which, 



83 

practically, cannot be exceeded. Now if we 
increase our demand upon the pupil beyond the 
limit which nature has established as the utmost 
bound of possibility, the result must be that some 
or all his studies must be neglected. If, for 
instance, students, during the early history of our 
Colleges, were judiciously occupied upon the 
then existing course, and we have increased three- 
fold the amount to be studied, it follows that 
the work at present must be more imperfectly 
done ; the knowledge must be more superficial, 
and the discipline less exact. Habits of study 
deteriorate. Radical and original thought be- 
comes more and more impossible. The stu- 
dent acquires the habit of going rapidly over 
the text book with less and less thought, and a 
tendency is created to the cultivation of the 
passive power of reception instead of the active 
power of originality ; he thus knows a little 
of every thing, but knows nothing well. No- 
thing tends so strongly to arrogance as surperfi- 
cial knowledge. Nothing so leads a man to rash 
judgments and contempt of the lessons of expe- 
rience, as the idea that he has compassed the 
whole circle of human knowledge by the time 
he has become of age. Solomon had observed 
a good while ago that there was more hope 
of a fool than of a man wise in his own conceit. 
Whether the public is at present suffering from 
the too rapid propagation of this form of folly, 
I leave it to others to decide. 

Suppose the four years of a College residence 



84 

to be so crowded with a multiplicity of objects 
of pursuit that nothing can be studied thoroughly, 
and the effect upon officers of instruction must 
be apparent. Suppose the time to be all occupied 
by the existing course. You add to it another 
study, and the time allotted to all the rest must 
be contracted to make room for it. You add 
another, the same result takes place ; and so 
onward as far as you choose to proceed. In the 
meantime the Teacher must curtail his amount 
of instruction within the limits of the lime allot- 
ted to him, and must either confine himself more 
and more to the inculcation of elements, or else 
must go over the whole ground more and more 
superficially. Hence the knowledge which the 
discharge of his duties requires becomes less and 
less, and the stimulus to his own improvement 
becomes more and more inoperative. He is 
very soon able to acquire all the knowledge 
which he can by any possibility communicate, 
and is it wonderful if he be tempted to stop at 
this limit ? If he acquire more knowledge he 
cannot use it in his profession. Nay, if he ac- 
quire more he must use it extra-professlonally, 
his interests become absorbed in pursuits extra- 
neous to the College, and thus, while he is 
improving himself, and enlarging the domain of 
science, he becomes really a less valuable College 
officer. 

And hence, under the present system, the 
multiplication of professorships in a College by 
endowment or otherwise is, beyond a limited 



85 

amount, an ambiguous benefit. All the knowledge 
communicated must be communicated in four 
years. A small number of able officers will 
teach all that a class of young men can well 
learn in this lime, if the labor is well divided. 
After this, every one that you add only renders 
the labor of the others less effectual and really 
less valuable. It is manifest that we might under 
these circumstances multiply officers until the 
whole system would be a perfect nuisance, a 
superficial going over a multitude of subjects 
without the acquisition either of knowledge or 
mental discipline. And hence it is, that, with 
us, there seems so little difference between a 
young College, with three or four professors and an 
old one, with ten or twelve. Nay, it not unfre- 
quently happens, that the institution the worst 
appointed in this respect, really confers the sound- 
est and most valuable education. It could not 
from the nature of the case be otherwise. 

The course thus pursued leads almost of 
.necessity to the employment of textbooks. This 
mode of teaching, as I am well aware, possesses 
pecuhar advantages. If the text book be well 
prepared and present a well arranged outline of 
the science on which it treats ; and if it be 
thoroughly mastered by the pupil, he cannot fail 
of acquiring a comprehensive view of the subject, 
and of thus forming a nucleus to which his subse- 
quent knowledge will readily attach itself. It 
must not however be concealed that this mode 
of study may be carried too far. It will be car* 



86 



ried too far if it interfere with the exercise of the 
original powers of the pupil and of the instructor. 
Suppose, for instance, that the student attend 
three recitations a day of one hour each; and that 
three hours are allotted to each study. Two 
hours will be occupied in preparation for recita- 
tion, and the remaining hour, which is spent with 
the instructor, must be consumed entirely in reci- 
tation and examination. There will therefore be 
but little time left to the student for reading, 
reflection, writing or original investigation. He 
will acquire the doctrines of the text book and 
nothing more, without having been enabled to 
pursue them out to their results, or compare them 
with the views of other writers on the same sub- 
ject. And moreover, a corresponding effect is 
produced upon the instructor. This mode of 
study allows him no time for forming or unfold- 
ing his own views. He is from the necessity of 
the case limited to the inculcation of the doctrines 
of the text book. However profound may be 
his knowledge he has no means of unfolding it.. 
Hence his motives to increased intellectual exer- 
tion are wholly aside from his profession. And 
hence all teachers are reduced to very nearly the 
same level. If the professor have mastered his 
text book and be able to inculcate it upon his 
pupils, it is all that is required ; nay it is all that 
the system allows. This is evidently a serious 
disadvantage to an instructor of ability and enter- 
prize, and its efl^ect upon the cause of education 
cannot but be disastrous. That text books, or 



87 

abstracts of a course of instruction should not be 
used, I by no means assert ; all I affirm is, that 
they should not be so used as to supercede the 
necessity of the vigorous and original action 
of the mind of the instructor upon the mind of the 
pupil. 

And, once more, this superficial education, of 
necessity, propagates itself. The imperfectly 
and superficially educated man is placed at the 
head of a preparatory school. He communicates 
the same sort of knowledge which he receives, 
and in the same manner. He was never taught 
to study, and he never teaches his pupils to study. 
He sends to College a second and inferior edition 
of the type of intellectual character which he him- 
self received there. The candidates for entrance, 
are found more and more imperfectly prepared, 
and thus the standard of College education is 
year after year more and more depressed. The 
College cannot resist the tendencies which it has 
itself created. The same results exhibit them- 
selves in the other professions. He who in Col- 
lege has formed the habit of superficial thought, 
carries it to the Pulpit, the Bar, and the Senate. 
Having acquired all the science, in four years, like 
Napoleon in his exaltation, he thinks that nothing is 
impossible. He believes that every thing can be 
comprehended at a glance, and that -the starlight 
wisdom of the past must fade away before the 
meridian efiulgence of his own far-seeing intellect. 
And not unfrequently the College itself comes in 
for a share of his illuminations. He despises all 



88 

exact and ancient knowledge, because it is behind 
the age. He would have nothing taught but what 
is useful, and he believes nothing to be useful 
which is not popular. It is too commonly popu- 
lar to pull down whatever is established, and thus 
not unfrequently, the very men whom the College 
has educated, as well as the system would allow, 
are the foremost to join in the cry against every 
thing which is designed to elevate the intellect- 
ual character, and cultivate the public senti- 
ment of the nation. 

Thus much of the four years course as a con- 
stituent element of our collegiate system. It 
will be necessary before closing this part of the 
subject, to refer to one or two incidental topics- 
And, first, of stimulants. 

I have remarked already on the excessive stim- 
ulants in the English Universities. In these In- 
stitutions they occupy so prominent a place, as to 
render the labor of Collegiate and University in- 
struction comparatively unnecessary. The Uni- 
versity furnishes residence, books, all the appli- 
ances for study, and offers such rewards as are of 
themselves sufficient, in a large number of instan- 
ces, to secure all the diligence that could be de- 
sired. A large portion of the instruction at pres- 
ent, is performed, not by officers appointed by the 
University or the Colleges, but by private tutors 
provided by the student himself. The pupil en- 
ters the University, becomes a member of a Col- 
lege, and frequently employs his own instructor at 
his own expense. If his tutor be competent, the 



89 

pupil may, if he please, pay very little regard to 
the regular instructor under whose care he is nonn- 
inally placed, and yet, if he be able and diligent, 
he may attain the highest honors of the Univer- 
sity. Thus were the instruction of the University 
wholly withdrawn and its labors restricted solely 
to the examination of students, and the conferring 
of rewards, the system might go on in many 
respects as it does now. It is a matter of com- 
plaint in these Institutions at the present day, that 
the tendency of the system is to render the in- 
struction of the regular College Tutors compara- 
tively unnecessary. Nor is this all. A system 
of this sort is liable to the vice of substituting the 
love of the reward for the love of that for which 
the reward is conferred ; to induce study for the 
mere love of the emoluments of scholarship in- 
stead of the love of intellectual improvement. ' That 
such has been the ease in England, there is reason 
to fear. In the Universities, there exists bril- 
liant scholarship and enthusiastic diligence up to 
the point necessary to the attainment of a Fellow- 
ship, but here it too frequently stops. The ob- 
ject having been attained, the effort ceases. I 
know not how else to account for the fact that 
with such magnificent endowments, such illimita- 
ble means for research, abounding in men of de- 
cided ability, and situated in the very bosom of 
the most highly civilized nation on earth, a nation 
peculiarly proud of her illustrious men, these 
venerable institutions have for the last century ad- 
ded so little to the amount of human knowledge. 



90 

I make these remarks with the most sincere re- 
spect for the Univeisities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. I speak of the system as it is, and not 
of the men by whom it is administered. 

'iliis it will be admittted, is stimulus in excess. 
But this by no means supposes that stimulus is 
unnecessary. I grant, at once, that the intellect- 
ual motive for study is the love of knowledge ; and 
the moral motive, the desire to serve God in the 
way which his Providence has marked out for us. 
But God has seen fit in the constitution under 
which he has placed us to set before us collateral 
advantages which shall quicken our efforts, and 
present additional motives to exertion. Thus he 
has told us that knowledge wnll increase our pow- 
er. "A wise man is strong, yea, a man of under- 
standing increases strength." He has set before 
us the good opinion of our fellow men as a motive 
to exertion. " A good name is better than 
riches." He has told us that diligence leads to 
eminence. " Seest thou a man diligent in busi- 
ness, he shall stand before kings, he shall not 
stand before mean men." And all this we see 
verified in actual life. When the youth grows up 
to manhood, all these consequences are vividly 
spread out before him, and produce their full 
effect, for he is now capable of appreciating 
them. They are not designed to be, and they 
should not be his controlling motives ; they are 
merely auxiliary, and they should so be treated. 
They however have a place assigned them by 
the Creator; and I see not why they should be 



91 



ejected from this place. xVll that is required, is, 
that they should never usurp the place of higher 
motives. 

But to young persons in general, these motives 
are seen, if seen at all, in ilie dim and shadowy 
distance. Other and more immediate motives, 
adapted to their age and inexperience, must be 
brought into action. What parent ever presented 
the love of knowledge and of duty to a child as 
the reason why he should at first go to school. 
Were he to rely upon these and no other, I appre- 
hend that the business of school teaching would 
soon come to an end. 

He directs his child to go, and tells him that he 
thinks it will be best for him, and this ends the 
matter. When the child has grown to be a boy, 
he would, in nine cases out of ten, prefer play to 
study. He must feel it necessary to go, and know 
that he may expect the displeasure of his parent 
if he be a truant. But this is not enough. He 
is an intelligent being, and it is desirable that he 
be placed in such circumstances that he would of 
himself desire to go to school and to be diligent 
while he is there. If he see not the value of a 
knowledge of Latin Grammar, and what boy ever 
did see it, let him see that by acquiring that 
knowledge he may obtain something else on which 
he places value. Let there be set before him 
collateral advantages, such as, under the govern- 
ment of God, would attach to diligence in subse- 
quent life. The great principle of that govern- 
ment is, that every man receives the consequences 



92 

of his own actions. As a pupil can rarely ap- 
preciate the ullimate consequences of his present 
actions, let us place before him immediate conse- 
quences, so far as possible, analogous to those 
which must afterwards inevitably ensue. He will 
thus be in the best manner trained up for what is 
in reality before him. 

These remarks apply in principle, to Colleges, 
as truly as to schools. If true, they would teach 
us to present rewards to diligence which shall be 
immediate, operating; on the youthful mind from 
term to term, and from day to day. Let the 
student see that in College as in life, he receives 
according to what he has attained. The rewards of 
diligence may be acknowledged standing, or pre- 
miums for excellence in scholarship, or both of 
these combined. And 1 doubt whether any system 
of instruction for young persons will be energetic 
and efficient, unless it involve to a considerable 
degree this important element. 

In the Colleges in this country, the practice in 
this respect is various. In some cases, the stand- 
ing of each scholar is assigned relatively at the 
close of every term. In one College, besides 
this, medals are awarded to distinguished scholar- 
ship. In otliers, pupils are divided into several 
ranks according to their attainment, each rank 
comprizing a considerable number of individuals. 
In others, the relative standing of the student is 
not made public by the faculty until the close of 
the Collegiate course, and then it is expressed by 
the place assigned to each person, in the exercises 



93 

on the anniversary Commencement. And in 
others, this principle is totally set aside, and no 
distinction whatever, is made either during the 
whole course, or at the close of it, from the fear 
of fostering improper emulation. 

For myself, I believe this principle as here ex- 
plained, to be a valuable coadjutant both for in- 
struction and discipline. We allow the necessity 
of the use of penalties. If a student be idle and 
worthless, we are obliged to give pain to him and 
to his friends hy removing him from College, or 
by the infliction of disagreeables of some sort or 
other. We require him under this necessity to 
attend upon his Collegiate exercises, and to be 
prepared for his private and public examinations. 
Why should we not also act on his hopes, and 
make him feel that it is as much for his interest to 
do well, as merely to escape from the censure of 
doing badly. Both are aside from the motives of 
love of study, and the fear of God ; but I do not 
see why one is not as innocent and as worthy to 
be employed as the other. I do not however in- 
tend to argue this point ; neither my time nor in- 
cHnation prompt me to the undertaking. While I 
respect the motives of those who differ from me 
on this subject, I am constrained to believe that 
they have taken a one sided view of the question. 
The last topic to which I would advert under 
this head is examinations. So far as I know in 
this country, these are always conducted viva 
voce. The class or a portion of the class, as the 
case may be, appears in the examination room. 



94 

and each one, in order, is called upon to recite 
some portion of the author that has been studied 
during the previous term or year, and is then 
questioned by the examiner, (who is I believe, 
always his instructor,) in the presence of such 
persons as may be invited, or as chose to be pres- 
ent. Only one person is examined at a time. 
The portion in which he is examined, is assigned 
by the teacher, or wbich is better, is determined 
by lot. Of course, the time which can be devot- 
ed to each individual, is very short. Suppose 
twenty young men are to be examined for two 
hours. No one can be under examination more 
than six minutes. During all the rest of the time, 
he is entirely unoccupied. 

Now every one must perceive that a system of 
examination of this sort must fail in almost every 
essential particular. In the first place it creates 
no satisfactory test of the students acquaintance 
with the subject. He may have read three or 
four books of Homer, and he is examined on five 
or six lines. He may have studied a system of 
Moral Philosophy, and he is examined on two or 
three paragraphs. He has studied the Elements 
of Geometry, and he is examined on a single 
proposition. If tlie instructor assign him his por- 
tion for examination, it is in his power to select 
the passage with reference to his own particular 
views. If the portions are determined by lot, then 
the appearance of each individual is, to a consid- 
erable degree, a matter of chance. One draws an 
easy passage, and, tliougb moderate in scholarship, 



95 

may do brilliantly; another far his superior, may 
fall upon a difficult one, and appear indifferently. 
Hence, not being a thorough test, it cannot be 
honestly relied upon, and a student's scholarship 
must be determined, to a considerable degree, by 
his general scholarship during the term. 

Much less can it be relied on as a test of relative 
scholarship. No test can be accurate, unless the 
same demand be made upon every competitor. 
If all have the same work set before them, then a 
comparison can be instituted between those who 
do the whole, and those who do a part ; and among 
those who do the same work, between those w^ho 
do it well, and those who do it less well. In this 
manner a satisfactory test can be presented, and 
as every one must be convinced that he has bad a 
fair chance, no one can reasonably be dissatisfied 
with the result. In this manner alone, can exam- 
inations present a sound and universal stimulant; 
for, in this manner alone, can they accurately re- 
veal the absolute and relative standing of the can- 
didate. 

In every respect, therefore, it may be consider- 
ed that our stimulants to study are extremely im- 
perfect. There is, in but few cases, such a report 
of standing and proficiency as shall appeal to the 
love of high scholarship; there are very rarely 
premiums offered, and these premiums are for rela- 
tive instead of absolute scholarship; and our ex- 
aminations are not of such a nature as to deter^ 
mine scholarship, so as to enable either instructor 
or pupil to rely upon them with certainty. 



96 

The absence of this power creates the necessity 
of additional strictness, and more minute supervis- 
ion. In proportion as the student is feebly moved 
by the hope of reward he must be urged the more 
sternly by the fear of deficiency. The mode of 
study must be such that this deficiency will be ap- 
parent at shortly recurring periods. Hence, the in- 
struction must for the greater part be conducted by 
means of recitations from a text book, and fre- 
quent if not daily examination must be made of 
the pupil's progress. If he incline to negligence, 
he must be spurred onward by the dread of dis- 
grace, the loss of his present standing, or the ulti- 
mate loss of his degree. It will hence occur that 
great labor devolves upon an officer to keep a class 
from running down, to urge onward the lagging, 
and to save the indolent from utter abandonment. 
Now I do not speak of this because I wish to 
render the life of an instructor an easy one. Woe 
be to tlie cause of education when this is the 
case. No man can do his duty in any profession, 
and in that of teaching, least of all, without zeal- 
ous and incessant labor. But I say that suppos- 
ing the amount of labor fixed, it is desirable to ren- 
der it as efficient as possible. If a system can 
be devised "which will enable an instructor to de- 
vote his abilities to the cultivation and develop- 
ment of mind, and which will stimulate his pupils 
to avail themselves eagerly of his instructions, it is 
to be preferred to a system which in its nature 
tends to render them indifferent to tlpe objects of 
their professed pursuit, and imposes upon him the 



97 

necessity of pressing them onward in the path of 
duty by the force of personal and official in- 
fluence. Men act more freely and more power- 
fully from hope, than from any depressing motive, 
and the stronger the operation of this principle, 
the more readily is formed that esprit du corps 
that literary enthusiasm, that eager love of truth 
and desire for intellectual development, without 
which a University is but the letter without the 
spirit, a body without a soul. 

It seems to me then that our literary institutions 
in this country, are greatly deficient in this im- 
portant element of a well arranged Collegiate sys- 
tem. I see no reason why the standing of every 
student should not be publicly announced at the 
close of every term, or just as often as the in- 
structor sees fit. The public opinion of the 
society is thus brought to bear upon each indi- 
vidual. But, besides this, I think that great 
advantages would result from the establishment 
of a large variety of premiums for distinguished 
excellence in the various branches of study. Such 
premiums should not, I apprehend, be given simply 
for relative rank, for then it is the mark of no 
particular attainment ; the best scholar in a poor 
class may win it as well as the best scholar in a 
good one. Under an indolent instructor all may 
be moderate together. I apprehend therefore 
that prizes should be offered only for the doing 
of particular things, the wTiting of essays, or 
poetry in the English or other languages, the 
solution of high and difficult problems, and the 
7 



98 



authorship of dissertations of pre-eminent merit 
on some branch of science or literature. These 
should never be awarded solely by the instructor, 
and they should never be bestowed unless the 
performance entered for competition be not only 
relatively the best, but also absolutely good, and 
deserving in itself of the commendation of an 
University. Thus prizes might be founded for 
Latin or Greek dissertations on a given subject, 
for Latin or Greek poetry ; for extempore trans- 
lation into Latin or Greek prose or verse, for the 
extempore solution of mathematical problems of 
a high character, for disquisitions on subjects of 
philosophy or morals involving a thorough and 
generous knowledge of those branches of science 
in which the competition was created. In this 
manner, the stimulant would operate both upon 
the officer and the student. Unless the officer 
taught well, his pupil could not gain the reward. 
And let the teaching be what it would, unless 
the student were diligent he would have no hope 
of success. In this manner a new incitement 
would be made to operate upon both, and both 
would be urged by a new motive to the accom- 
plishm.ent of the same result. 

But I would not confine the system of pre- 
miums to proficiency while in College. It is of 
great consequence to elevate the standard of 
qualifications for entrance. I would therefore 
award several premiums to those who were mat- 
riculated with the highest attainment. This 
would induce much better scholarship in those who 



99 

are fitting for College. It would be an inducement 
to young men to remain longer at the preparatory 
school, and thus render this branch of teaching 
more generous and more perfect. And if, in 
addition, the name of every prize scholar were 
designated on the annual catalogue, with the name 
and place of his instructor, this form of stimulus 
would extend itself was beneficially to this part 
of the educational system. 

I have spoken of the oral character of our 
examinations and of its defects. In the Univer- 
sity of Cambridge, England, all examinations are 
conducted in writing. The questions for exami- 
nation are printed beforehand, and delivered 
to the class in the examination room. They 
then see them for the first time. Every student 
is furnished with a copy. The same time is 
allotted to all. When the time has expired, each 
student signs his name to his papers and hands 
them to the moderators. By a comparison of 
these the standing of the scholar is decided. 
The same work is set before all, and the value 
of each question is previously established. In 
this case, it is not difficult to decide who has done 
the greatest number or those of the greatest value. 
And I believe that in no case has the least sus- 
picion of unfairness been awakened. Nor, al- 
though competition is keen and earnest beyond 
any thing that we conceive of, is any unkind or 
envious rivalry apt to be engendered. It is only a 
short time since, that two young gentlemen, intimate 
friends, were after examination, the acknowledged 



100 

sole competitors for the highest honor of their 
year, the appointment of senior wrangler. This 
competition had never produced in their bosoms the 
least feeling of coldness or alienation. When the 
hour at which the result of the examination was 
to be declared arrived, they walked out together 
to avoid the excitement of the occasion. The 
conversation naturally turned upon their mutual 
chances of success and each one assigned the 
palm to the other, and each honestly thought 
his friend more deserving of it than himself. 
When they returned from their walk, the rank 
liadbeen awarded, and the University was re-echo- 
ing the acclamations of rejoicing at the event. 
They both in entire simplicity of heart united in 
the excitement of the scene, and no one would 
have known from ought that appeared, or as my 
informant believed, from ought that existed, which 
was senior or which was junior wrangler. This 
is noble, and as it becomes high minded men. 
It teaches us how much better it is to eradicate 
envy by the inculcation of higher principles and 
the carrying out of even handed justice, than to 
yield to it and thus cultivate it, by admitting that 
you dare not do justice from the fear that it should 
be awakened. I have had some experience on 
this subject, and I have never seen less envy 
than when, on the principles of pure justice, the 
standing of every man was publicly set forth. 
I never have seen so much of it, as among those 
who would have all distinctions abolished from 
the fear that it would be excited. 



101 

The objection to this mode of examination is 
its expensiveness. The printing of so much 
Latin and Greek and Mathematics would form a 
heavy bill, and in the neighborhood of many of 
our Colleges could not be executed. It is how- 
ever probable that the same result could be at- 
tained in some other way. Another objection is 
the amount of labor which it involves. When ex- 
aminations are to be held in so many branches of 
study as are taught in our Colleges, and where 
every officer is so fully employed, and where it 
would be difficult to procure persons not members 
of College to undertake the labor, a serious ob- 
stacle is presented. How this is to be obviated I 
do not very well see. It would however involve 
but little difficulty to make the experiment on a 
small scale, and if it was found to answer a valua- 
ble purpose, means might be found to extend it 
throughout the whole system. Of one thing I 
feel confident, and that is that no system of edu- 
cation will be successful in this country, without 
the introduction of strict, impartial and searching 
examinations. In what manner these can best 
be effected every one must be left to judge for 
himself. 

The question will here be asked what are we to do 
with the four years course? I answer, it seems to 
me of but very little consequence whether we do 
with it or with out it. The whole course, origi- 
nally, like the apprenticeship to trades, extended to 
seven years, at which time the pupil proceeded to 
Master of Arts, with the full liberty of teaching or 



102 

lecturing wherever he pleased. The degree of 
Bachelor was only initiatory, and did not excuse 
the student from residence at the University during 
the remaining three years of the course. This 
has been since abridged to four years, and nothing 
additional is required of the candidate for the sec- 
ond degree. There is nothmg magical or imper- 
ative in the term of four years, nor has it any 
natural relation to a course of study. It was 
adopted as a matter of accident ; and can have, 
of itself, no important bearing on the subject in 
hand. 

But is it not important to have some standard 
fixed ; and to have this standard as high as possi- 
ble, to which the candidate for the certificate of a 
liberal education shall conform. I answer most 
truly, and I would elevate rather than depress it. 
I by no means sympathize with the efforts made 
in various forms to render the requirements for a 
degree less exact or comprehensive or scholarlike. 
Some Colleges maintaining the four years course 
allow so much time for vacations that the period 
of study is actually reduced to three years. Oth- 
ers vary the requirements in such a way that the 
discipline and attainments demanded are very dif- 
ferent from those formerly established. We see 
therefore that fixing the time to be occupied osten- 
sibly in liberal study, by no means accurately fixes 
the amount of knowledge required for a degree. 

I am by no means tenacious of the term of four 
years. I certainly would not have the period cur- 
tailed, commencing with the present or even with 



10^ 



much higher requirements for admission to the 
University. But 1 would not have it a matter of 
time. Instead of fixing upon a period of four or 
five or six years, I would designate the amount of 
knowledge and discipline which could be attained 
by ordinary talent and persevering diligence during 
that time. But supposing this time to be fixed, 
the question is how shall it be occupied ; in thor- 
ough or in superficial study ; in full and manly de- 
velopment of the powers of the mind or in merely 
running over elements. That is to say, shall we 
so arrange the course that every subject taught can 
be so far pursued as to render the student a profi- 
cient in it, and thus impart to his mind the charac- 
ter of manliness and original power ; or shall we 
oppress the time by the multitude of particulars 
crowded into it, so that neither pupil nor teacher 
can either communicate or receive any thing more 
than an outline of science. It seems to me that 
the proper course is marked out by plain common 
sense. Let the requirements for a degree be 
high, but let them be high in attainment of knowl- 
edge and not in the number of things to be prop- 
erly learned. Or, if it be thought that everything 
at present taught should be required of the candi- 
date, then let the period of study be extended. 
What we do let us do well, and then our syst>em 
will recommend itself. 

I am fully aware that this is the most difficult 
part of the subject, and the point at which the 
greatest number of objections will be raised. It 
will be said that the custom of a four years course 



104 



has been so long established ibat it cannot be al- 
tered, that the people require a cheaper, a naore 
universal education, that they will not bear any- 
thing which shall render the attainment of degrees 
more difficult ; and I allow that all these so far 
as they are true, belong to the nature of objections. 
I allow them their full effect. I have great res- 
pect for the opinions of the people when they are 
expressed deliberately, after a full knowledge of 
the facts and reasonings in the case. Without 
deliberation and knowledge, however, the public 
sentiment is as liable to err as the sentiment of an 
individual. Do just as the people direct, if you 
do unwisely they will like it no better for their 
having directed it. Do rightly and well, whether 
they have directed or not, and they will in the 
end approve it. I firmly believe that if our 
system of Collegiate education can be improved 
it will be received with greater favor than at pres- 
ent ; and with increasing favor in proportion to the 
value of the improvement. 

And, again, in suggesting changes I am very 
far from believing that any wholesale revolutions 
could be effected immediately without great inju- 
ry. Such revolutions in matters of civil govern- 
ment are never effected without great peril and 
seldom without social disorganization. It is the 
same with respect to any thing which has been 
long established, which has taken deep root in the 
feelings of men and become interwoven with the 
usages of society. I therefore in this and in all that 
I say, recommend nothing of this kind. My de- 



105 



sire is merely to make out the points at which we 
are to aim in the changes which we attempt to in- 
troduce. I leave to others to say when and how, 
and in how far they may be adopted ; if worthy 
of being adopted at all. We have proceeded for 
nearly two centuries on the same plan, adopted by 
imitation from the then existing institutions of the 
old country. It surely cannot be deemed obtru- 
sive, since we seem at present determined to mod- 
ify our system, to examine its construction and in- 
quire with what object, and tending to what design, 
our changes are to be made. 

Let us then, taking the present condition of our 
Colleges as our starting point, inquire in what man- 
ner they may probably be changed for the better. 

1. It is certainly practicable to enlarge our re- 
quirements for admission. We may deinand a 
much more thorough and scholarlike acquaintance 
with Latin, and Greek, and Arithmetic, the ele- 
ments of Mathematics, Geography, History, An- 
cient and Modern, and the English Languages. 
The benefits of such a change would be manifold. 
It would materially improve the condition of all 
our academies. It would render the office of 
principal, of far greater consequence ; as it would 
require more thorough scholarship, and command 
a higher remuneration. In England, the teachers 
of the preparatory schools hold a rank among the 
ablest and most distinguished of her scholars. 
The Masters of Westminister and Eton, of 
Rugby and Harrow, stand side by side with 
Bishops and Heads of Colleges. There is no 



106 



man in Great Britain at this moment, enjoying a 
more enviable or a better deserved reputation 
than Dr. Arnold, the beloved and revered Master 
of Rugby. Why should it not be so here ? 
Why should our academies so frequently be com- 
mitted to young men preparing for the professions, 
who only teach for the sake of the emolument of 
two or three years labor, and then abandon the 
occupation forever. Just in proportion as we re- 
quire more, will more be done by academies, and 
the more that is done there, the higher will be the- 
rank, and the more pleasant the situation of the 
principal. 

But again, by raising the requirements of Col- 
leges, we shall enter students of a more uniform 
and more advanced age. The advantages of this 
alteration are easily seen. Students are now com- 
monly admitted on the completion of the fourteenth 
year. At that age, they may be able to acquire 
the knowledge of languages required by our stat- 
utes ; but they are by no means generally prepar- 
ed for the increasing difficulty of the course as it 
is now constituted. They are not of sufficient 
maturity to be left to self reliance. Hence many 
of them fail when they so rapidly approach the 
more abstruse branches of study. And besides, 
they are at once associated with men of twen- 
ty-five or thirty years of age. The manner of 
teaching adapted to persons so widely differing 
in age, should manifestly be different. But under 
the present system, the same lessons are to be 
learned by all, throughout the whole period of 



107 

College tuition. This is manifestly disadvanta- 
geous to the instructor and to the pupil. Were the 
requirements such as to detain at the Academy 
the youngest class of our students for two or three 
years longer, it would, as it seems to me, be of great 
service to both parties. Of this our students who 
graduate young are almost always convinced. I 
have rarely conversed with one of these on this 
subject, even although he may have attained to 
high scholarship, who has not declared that he 
now felt himself prepared for nothing so well as to 
pursue his whole Collegiate course over again ; and 
who did not deeply deprecate his misfortune, in 
having gone over so important subjects of thought, 
at so immature an age. 

The advantages to scholarship from this altera- 
tion are equally obvious. With more thorough 
knowledge and a more mature understanding, the 
student would more fully appreciate the value of 
time, and more accurately estimate the bearing of 
his present diligence upon his ultimate success. 
He would be the better able to put forth his al- 
ready developing powers of original investigation. 
He would feel in some degree, his ability to in- 
quire for truth for himself and not merely to trea- 
sure up the know^ledge which is contained in text 
books. His mental occupations would thus assim- 
late more nearly to those in which he is to be en- 
gaged in professional life. And I cannot but be- 
lieve that the result would be a more manly, intel- 
lectual stature and a fuller and freer mental devel- 
opment. 



lOS 



Tlie effect upon teachers, would I apprehend, 
be equally beneficial. As it is at present, there is 
but little division of labor between the teachers of 
Academies, and the teachers of Colleges. Both do 
very much the same work, and from want of being 
done well, it is of necessity, to be done over and 
over again. Both are confined very greatly to 
the inculcation of elements. The student, owing 
to imperfect preparation, and the limited time de- 
voted to each branch of study, is unable to enter 
upon the higher and more widely related depart- 
ments of science, and the instructor is equally un- 
able to put forth whatever of talent he may pos- 
sess, in his peculiar profession. Any plan which 
would give freer scope to the abilities of both par- 
ties would, surely, materially subserve the best in- 
terests of education. 

And now supposing a change of this kind to 
have been made ; there are three modes in which 
our present system might be modified. 

First, the number of studies pursued during the 
College course, might be limited in such manner 
that whatever is taught may be taught thoroughly. 
The College would in this case be open only for 
persons who are candidates for degrees. The 
standard of attainment may be as high as is con- 
sidered desirable. The difierence aimed at would 
be this, that, instead of learing many things im- 
perfeclly^ we should learn a smaller number of 
things well. I am sure that every man in active 
life would, on retrospection, wish that his educa- 
tion had been thus conducted. By learning one 



109 



science well, we learn how to study, and bow to 
master a subject. Having made tbis attainment 
in one study, we readily apply it to all other 
studies. We acquire the habit of thoroughness, 
and carry it to all other matters of inquiry. The 
course of study at West Point Academy is very 
limited, but the sciences pursued are carried much 
farther than in other institutions in our country ; and 
it is owing to this that the reputation of the insti- 
tution is so deservedly high. The English Uni- 
versity course is, in respect to the number of 
branches pursued, limited, and yet it is remarka- 
bly successful in developing the powers of the 
mind. Observe the maturity and vigor which the 
young men there frequently obtain. They some- 
times go from the University, as for instance, Pitt, 
Fox, and Canning, directly to the House of Com- 
mons, and are competent at once, to take an im- 
portant part in the labors of that august assembly. 
And yet more, I apprehend that the acquisition of 
the habit of thoroughness is the true method of 
arriving at the most extensive attainments. A 
(ew years since I had the pleasure of meeting one 
of the most leai'ned German scholars who has 
visited this country. I asked him how it was that 
his countrymen were able, at so early an age, to 
obtain the mastership of so many languages. He 
replied " I began the study of Latin at an early age. 
Every book that I studied I was made thoroughly 
acquainted with. I was taught to read and re-read, 
translate forwards and backwards, trace out every 
word and know every thing about it. Before I 



110 

left a book it became as familiar to me as if writ- 
ten in German. After this I never had any 
difficulty with any other language.'''' 

2. But secondly. Suppose a course so limited 
does not find favor, and it be contended that as the 
branches of knowledge are multiplied, a greater 
number must be included in the course of liberal 
education. If this be thought preferable, let us 
do this. But let us not attempt impossibilities, 
nor let us be contented with superficial education. 
Let us extend the term. It was originally in fact, 
seven years. Let us make it five, or six. If the 
requirements of admission were greater, and the 
College course increased by the addition of one 
or two years, a great gain would be made to the 
cause of education. I think that there is but 
small fear of our doing too much, if we only do it 
well. 

3. The third plan would be to make a Col- 
lege more nearly to resemble a real University ; 
that is, to make it a place of education in all the 
most important branches of human learning. 
This might properly include instruction in all pro- 
fessional, as well as ante-professional science. It 
should comprize teaching in Latin, Greek, 
French, German, and Hebrew languages. Math- 
ematics, Mechanics, and all the branches of Nat- 
ural Philosophy, Moral Philosophy, Intellectual 
Philosophy, Physical Science in all its depart- 
ments, Rhetoric and its kindred literature. His- 
tory, as well as instruction in Law and Medicine. 

Of these branches, those might be selected 



HI 



which should be required of the candidate for the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts, and his graduation 
might depend not on time of residence, but on 
proficiency to be determined by examination. 
Another course embracing other studies might be 
made requisite to the obtaining of another degree. 
If one is Bachelor of Arts, the other might be 
Bachelor of Science, or of Literature. And still 
more, in order to bring the whole course of study 
within the scope of University stimulants, the de- 
gree of Master of Arts, instead of being confer- 
red without additional attainment, as it is at present, 
might be conferred only on those who have pursu- 
ed successfully the whole circle of study marked 
out for the candidates for both degrees. The de- 
gree of Master of Arts would then designate a 
degree of positive attainment, and would be a val- 
uable and efficient testimonial. As it is now, to 
all practical purposes, we throw this degree away. 
It exerts no power of motive whatever. The 
best and the worst scholars are equally entitled to 
it on the third year after graduation. It might be 
made, as it seems to me, to subserve a valuable 
purpose in a system of education. A still further 
modification of the studies taught in a College 
will be suggested on a subsequent page. ^ 

It may be a question which of these plans is 
best suited to the purposes of our country. Either 
would I think be preferable to our present system. 
One may answer better in one place and another 
in another. I merely suggest these as topics for 
consideration to those who are interested in the cause 



112 



of Collegiate education. I am desirous at least 
of laying the case before the visitors and officers of 
Colleges among us for candid consideration. If 
they should contribute in even so small a degree 
to direct the public attention to the points to be 
aimed at, or even to be avoided, I shall receive 
a full reward. In this country, if a movement can 
only be but commenced in the right direction, it 
will soon make ample progress. I say a movement 
in the right direction, for I have no idea that any 
change of value can be made instantaneously. If 
however the learned and able and self-sacrificing 
men who are now engaged in the profession of 
teaching can be led to act wisely and in concert on 
this subject, and the public can be brought into har- 
mony with their action, I believe that a mighty 
impulse might be communicated to the cause of 
education among us. 



Sect. 4. Of College Discipline, 

I have thus far spoken entirely upon the intel- 
lectual part of a College education. The Physi- 
cal arrangements remain yet to be considered. 
This part of the subject will not require so ex- 
tended a discussion as the preceding. 

The physical arrangements of an American 
College are,' I believe, generally these. The 



113 



College erects buildings for the accommodation of 
students, consisting almost entirely of domitories. 
The buildings are commonly after the same model, 
disconnected from each other, three or four stories 
high, and containing from about thirty to nearly 
fifty rooms in each. One, or more commonly, I 
think two students occupy the same room. The 
residence is assigned to each pupil by the Presi- 
dent or some other ofhcer. The junior officers 
occupy rooms in the College building during the 
day and night, and the senior officers in some in- 
stitutions during the day. All the rooms in many 
Colleges, are visited by the officers during some 
part of the day and evening, for the purpose of 
preserving order, but how universally this practice 
obtains, I have no means of judging. 

In most Colleges, a commons table is provided 
for the students and for the junior officers if they 
choose, at the nett cost. In some cases, the 
pupils are obliged to board in commons, in others 
this is optional. In general, then, the College un- 
dertakes to stand to the student in the place of a 
parent, providing for him board and lodging, and 
the services usually included in this charge, as well 
as education ; and it assumes the responsibility 
which attaches to this undertaking. 

The laws respecting residence, are, therefore, 
constituted upon this principle. The student is 
required to arise for public prayers and recitations 
at an early hour in the morning ; to attend his rec- 
itations and lectures as often in a day as he may 
be directed ; to remain in his room during study 
8 



114 



hours, and always in the evening ; to attend no 
places of pubHc amusement ; and in general, the 
laws are constructed upon the supposition, that the 
pupil requires during his residence, something like 
parental supervision, and this supervision the Col- 
lege undertakes to supply. 

Under such a system, of course, the rules 
must be uniform. No difference can ever be 
shown in the administration of a law. The stu- 
dent of twenty-five or thirty years of age, must be 
subjected to the same law as the student of fifteen. 
Nor can any allowance be made for difference of 
character and habits. The principle on which the 
system is based, is supervision, and responsibility 
for the moral character of the pupil. Those who 
need this supervision, and those who do not need 
it, must equally conform to its requisitions. All 
this is evident, for a rule which is put in force, only 
at the will of the executive, ceases to be a law, 
and becomes nothing more than an arbitrary exer- 
cise of power. 

Let us now impartially consider the advantages 
and disadvantages of this part of our Collegiate 
system. 

The first argument which is advanced in favor 
of it, is its economy. It is believed by many per- 
sons, that the cost of board and lodging is much 
less than it would be if students procured accom- 
modations in families in the vicinity of the Col- 
lege. So far as this is true, it is well worthy of 
consideration. Whatever can reduce the cost of 
education without reducing its value, is a gain to 



115 



the community ; just as the reduction of the cost 
of flour, or fuel, or any other article [oi use is 
an advantage to every consumer, and equally in 
the end to the producer. 

2. Tt is believed that under a system of this 
kind, the morals of pupils will be more effectually 
guarded. It is supposed that the temptations to 
vice will operate much less efiectively upon a 
young man placed under the care of his instructors. 
Residence in College buildings, under the circum- 
stances which I have described, is supposed to 
furnish the means for such a supervision. Were 
the student permitted to go and come when he 
would, to be absent or at home by night at his own 
pleasure, he would be liable to all the seductions 
of bad company, and the allurements of vicious 
example. This is a point deserving of the 
gravest consideration. The most important end 
to be secured in the education of the young, is 
moral character. Without this, brilliancy of intel- 
lect, will only plunge its possessor more deeply in 
temporal disgrace and eternal misery. If this 
part of our present system really produce the best 
moral effect, it should never be abandoned ; for, if 
we have so constructed our plan that this end is 
attained, we may be assured that every other bene- 
fit that falls within the range of its influence, will 
follow in its train. 

3. It is also said that the advantages of a pub- 
lic education could not in many respects be attain- 
ed without this species of residence. A young 
man comes from home with various incidental pe- 



116 

culiarities, the growth of his local associations as well 
as the results of his own individual idiosyncracies. 
In the friction of a College life, these are rubbed 
off, and the man, with his practical faculties quick- 
ened, and his own self estimation rectified, is the 
better prepared to act his part on the theatre of 
life. There is reason also in this consideration, 
which is well worthy of attention. So far as this 
sort of practical education is gained, it is valuable. 
All that we have to guard against, is the paying for 
it too dearly. These I believe are the principle 
reasons urged in favor of this feature of our pres- 
ent system. 

On the other hand, various objections will occur 
to the mind of every man who calmly reflects 
upon it. 

The first fact which strikes us in looking upon 
these arrangements, is that tJiey are unnatural. 
The family, with all the sympathies of relation- 
ship and society, is the natural place for the young. 
They are at an age in which they require attention 
in time of sickness, and care in time of health. 
They are soon going out into the world to suffer 
or to enjoy as the punishment or reward of the 
actions of every day. It would seem desirable 
that they should be gradually introduced to the 
responsibilities which they are called to assume. 
As they are going from home on probation, wis- 
dom would seem to direct that their situation 
should combine in as great a degree as possible, the 
elements of the situation which they have hardly 
left, with those of the situation which they are 
shortly to occupy. 



117 

Now I think it obvious that the present system 
is unsuited both to the younger students, and to 
those that are farther advanced in age. The former 
would be better situated under more perfect super- 
vision, while to the latter, so large an amount of su- 
pervision is unnatural and unnecessary. A pupil, of 
the age at which many of our students enter College, 
requires to be much more directly under the influ- 
ence of his instructor ; he needs to be quickened, 
and directed by counsel and personal intercourse ; 
otherwise he is tempted to spend much of his time in 
light and frivolous reading and in useless amusement. 
His habits are not yet formed, and nothing but as- 
siduous attention will be likely to form them aright. 
And besides, he is commonly unaware of the pre- 
cautions necessary to preserve himself in health, 
or to take care of himself in sickness. He is left 
in his room to assume the charge of himself as 
though he were of mature age. He is shut out 
from all the influences of home, and removed at 
once from all restraints which arise from being 
under the inspection of parents and relatives. 
Every one must be aware that no young person 
can be placed in such circumstances without ex- 
posure to great risks. 

But the same discipline is generally unsuited 
for those who are farther advanced. There is no 
reason why an instructor should assume any spe- 
cial moral responsibility for young men who have 
already attained to majority, who are recognised by 
law and the customs of society as competent in 
all respects to govern themselves, and who are, in 



118 



all other circumstances, held to be perfectly res- 
ponsible for their own actions. It seems unrea- 
sonable that they should be subject to a discipline 
which prescribes rules for their residence, and also 
for their presence by day and by night. It might 
well be supposed that they are competent to act 
in these respects for themselves, and to take the 
consequences of their own conduct. But College 
law, can make no difference in its treatment of un- 
dergraduates. What is the rule for one, must be 
the rule for all. If therefore the system is adapt- 
ed to the young, it will be unsuitable for the older, 
if adapted to the older, it will be unsuitable for 
the young. If a half way course is adopted, it 
will be suitable for neither. A large part of 
the difficulty which occurs in course of Collegi- 
ate discipline, arises directly from this source. 

It is not inappropriate to mention the bearing of 
this part of our system upon health. It has the 
advantage of regularity, but this is almost the only 
one, of which, in this respect, it can boast. The 
buildings being all contiguous, no necessity of ex- 
ercise is imposed. Hence, in almost all our Col- 
leges, young men suffer severely from intense phys- 
ical indolence. They spend day after day in warm 
rooms, leaving them only at the hours of recita- 
tion, prayers and commons, and then only to 
cross a small court or pass from one building to 
another. In sickness, they are from necessity, 
deprived of all the ordinary comforts which their 
situation demands. From their habits of social 
intercourse, as well as from proximity of resi- 



119 

dence, the lighter infectious diseases are rapidly 
communicated. I have sometimes known a large 
portion of the students in a College disabled from 
attendance on their literary exercises from the 
prevalence of measles, mumps and similar disea- 
ses. These, it may be said are minor evils, yet in 
deliberating upon a question of this kind, they are 
not unworthy of serious consideration. 

Let us in the next place consider the moral 
bearings of this question. 

The advantage of the present system, on the 
score of morals, arises from the supervision which 
is extended by officers over their pupils. I am 
by no means inclined to underrate the value of this 
supervision. 1 know that it is considered by Col- 
lege officers as one of the gravest of their respon- 
sibilities. They frequently devote to it a large 
portion of their time, and of their most anxious 
thought. Besides bestowing upon it a large amount 
of personal attention, they labor to cultivate such 
a tone of moral feeling as shall render vigilance 
comparatively unnecessary. They do all that 
the circumstances of the case allow. But let 
us see in how far they are enabled to accomplish 
their object. 

The buildings in this country are never con- 
structed with a view to supervision. They are 
open from the beginning of the term to the end of 
it, by day and by night. The Colleges are always 
within a short distance of the usual temptations 
of youth. And in this respect, it. matters really 
but little whether an Institution be situated in 



120 

a town or in llie country. Place it where you 
will, in a few years, there will cluster around it 
all the opportunities of idle and vicious expendi- 
ture. Under such circumstances, it is obvious 
that no physical means can be devised which 
shall furnish such supervision as will present an 
impassable barrier to unlawful inclination. 

But still more. In most of our Colleges, the 
larger portion of the officers are heads of families, 
residing at a distance from the College premises. 
Their studies are sometimes, perhaps more fre- 
quently, within the College buildings. These they 
occupy during the day, and perhaps during the 
evening. But after they have retired, the whole 
supervision of the Institution is committed to the 
smaller number of junior officers. The imme- 
diate charge of one or two hundred pupils is left 
to three or four persons residing in different parts 
of several unconnected buildings, and all of them 
open by day and by night. These officers would 
always disperse any noisy or unsuitable assem- 
blage within the College walls, and take notice 
of any absence during the hours of visiting. 
They can however do but little more. We fre- 
quently hear the disorders of the English Univer- 
sities made a matter of remark, but there, all the 
College buildings are constructed with reference to 
this object, and all the officers, both young and old, 
besides a large number of Fellows reside within 
the College v^alls. We expect a much more 
perfect supervision without having provided any 
of the means for carrying it into effect. If we 



121 

really intend to cany cut a system of exact moral 
respcnsibility, it is manifest that our arrangements 
stand in need of a radical change. In order to 
put this subject in a true light, suppose that a 
building similar to one of our Colleges, and provi- 
ded with the same means of moral restraint were 
erected in one of cur cities, for the purpose of 
boarding and lodging young men of from fifteen 
to twenty five or thirty years of age. Would 
any parent consider his son belter situated in 
such an establishment, than in such a boarding 
house as he might select for him. I cannot, for 
myself see that such an establishment would pos- 
sess any peculiar advantages. No one that I 
have ever heard of, has yet made the experiment. 
But, aside from all this, there are particular 
disadvantages arising from this intimate association 
of so many young persons, so far from all tlie ordi- 
nary influences of society. Where so many young 
men are collected together, it is manifest that not a 
few will have been already addicted to habits of 
vice. It will, I fear be found too generally true, 
that the wicked are much more zealous in making 
proselytes than the virtuous ; and here, as in any 
other case, the danger of contamination is great- 
ly increased by the nearness of the contact. 
Older residents, influence for evil those who have 
more recently entered. The succession is thus 
kept up, and he who has any tendency to vice, 
will in such a society, readily find associates and 
abettors. Young men are, to a proverb, frank 
and confiding. Entering upon a new scene, they 



122 

easily become allied, without reflection, to those 
who have been long initiated, and who seem dis- 
posed to patronize them. In this manner, associ- 
ations are frequently formed in the very commence- 
ment of a Collegiate course which give a sad, if 
not a fatal tendency to the whole period, if not to 
the whole of a young man's subsequent life. 
The greater the number of young men associated 
together, and the more intimate this association, 
the greater is the danger from this cause. And 
yet it is into precisely this danger that parents 
are anxious to plunge their sons at the earliest 
period at which it can be allowed. 

Besides, it is to be remarked, that a College 
forms a community by itself, an imperium in im- 
perioj isolated to a great extent from connexion 
with the community around it. To the w^orld in 
general, it seems, 1 believe, surrounded by an at- 
mosphere of inexplicable mystery. The students 
are not exposed individually to the salutary re- 
straints of public observation and public opinion. 
Nay, it has frequently been held that they are not 
amenable, like other persons of their age, to the 
authority of civil and municipal law. I have known 
a distinguished President of a New England Col- 
lege, to be severely censured because he exposed 
to the penalty of the law, young men who had 
been guilty of the most flagitious violations of it ; 
just as though those, who were under the most im- 
perative obligations to set an example of high 
minded and honorable conduct, should be the only 
persons who should be permitted to set all law and 



123 

order at defiance. I do not however intend to 
discuss the principle involved in this question ; I 
only refer to the fact, for the sake of illustrating 
the very injudicious notions which have been suf- 
fered to obtain in regard to the nature and obliga- 
tions of a College community. 

Now where persons are collected together un^ 
der these circumstances, shut out from the or- 
dinary rules of society, they will form by in- 
stinct, a system of rules, unwritten, of course, 
for themselves. And these rules will be always 
the exponent of the character, and age, and cir- 
cumstances of the society by which they are 
formed. Being separated, in a considerable de- 
gree, from the rest of society, the first principle of 
the code will be laid in the distinction between 
themselves and others, or between the obligations 
which they owe to a member of their own com- 
munity, and of those which they owe to a mem- 
ber of the community around them. Young per- 
sons are reckless of consequences, fond of present 
pleasure, extremely sensitive to the disapproba- 
tion of their fellows, easily making allowance for 
vice if it be not accompanied by meanness, fond of 
social hilarity without any appreciation of its re- 
sults, and restive under restraint without having 
arrived at the maturity necessary to self-govern- 
ment. Of course the rules of conduct instinct- 
tively formed by such a society, will be the natural 
result of the combination of all these elements. 
As I have said before, things follow their tenden- 
cies. Counteracting principles may from time to 



124 

time be introduced wbicli shall modify for a while 
the result. But, in the long run, place in inti- 
mate and exclusive association, a number of 
young persons ; and a social system such as I 
have alluded to, will of necessity be formed. The 
question to be considered here, is therefore this, 
does a society organized under such circumstances, 
present a better opportunity for moral cultivation 
than society at large ? 

Were I disposed to extend these remarks, I 
might pertinently advert to the effect upon man- 
ners which is produced by the continued associa- 
tion of young men, for so long a time, with no 
others than persons of their own class ; to the 
waste of time which must result from frivolous con- 
versation, where the opportunities of conversation 
are so abundant ; and the ignorance of the w^orld 
which must necessarily arise from opinions formed 
in so secluded, so exciting and so unnatural a po- 
sition. I have however, no desire to press this 
subject. I. wish merely to present the case in 
such a light, that those interested in the subject 
may be able to estimate the advantages to moral 
cultivation which the present system does and does 
not possess, in order that they may form a correct 
opinion of its relative value. 

Another argument in favor of the existing sys- 
tem is derived from its cheapness. 

In order to decide upon this point of our inquiry 
correctly, it will be necessary to consider it in 
respect, first, to the students and secondly^ to the 
community. 



125 

So far as students are concerned, the question 
to be considered, is simply this, could board and 
lodging be procured in the vicinity of a College, 
at as cheap a rate as they are furnished by the 
College itself. After much reflection on this sub- 
ject, I am of the opinion that the average differ- 
ence would be so small as scarcely to be worth 
taking seriously into the account. If the College 
buildings yielded a fair interest on the investment, 
the price of room rent would be much higher than 
it would be if otherwise procured. I doubt also, 
whether any thing whatever is saved by boarding 
in commons. Living in this manner, is always 
from various causes, unnecessarily expensive. In- 
asmuch as all pay at the same rate, no one feels 
the necessity of economy, for no one can enjoy 
more than a very small portion of the saving of 
expense which economy secures. And, as no one 
is willing either to plead poverty, or to be accused 
of meanness, no one is willing to oppose the de- 
sire of his neighbors to luxurious living. Hence 
the expenses of such a table will generally be 
greater than a large part of the commoners are 
able to afford, or else complaint and ill nature, in 
consequence of the quality of the food, will con- 
tinually arise. The natural remedy for these 
evils is to allow every pupil to find board for him- 
self wherever he pleases. When this is permit- 
ted, every one will provide for himself according 
to his previous habits and circumstances. The 
rich will not then press the poor into expenses 
which they are ill able to afford ; and the poor 



126 



will not be obliged to waste their resources in a 
manner which conduces in no respect to their ad- 
vantage, from the fear of being considered indi- 
gent or penurious. The experience of the Col- 
leges in this country, I believe fully sustains me in 
these views so far as the experiment has been 
tried. The case of the English and Scotch Uni- 
versities is also full in point. The system of the 
English Universities involves residence, and board 
the same as our own, and its expensiveness is 
proverbially great. The Scotch Institutions fur- 
nish nothing but Education, and leave the pupil to 
provide every thing else for himself and are pro- 
verbially cheap. Young men, it is said, frequent- 
ly come to Edinburgh and Glasgow, from the in- 
terior counties, and from Ireland, with nothing 
more than sufficient to pay for their tickets, the 
rent and fuel of a single room, and the potatoes 
and salt on which they are to subsist. Such men 
frequently attain the highest distinction and rise to 
deserved eminence. No one either knows or asks 
how or where they live. They appear in their 
places at the recitation room, and bear away the 
palm at examinations ; and thus are subject to no 
mortification from the narrowness of their circum- 
stances. The system in a word, allows every 
man to use his means, whatever they may be, in 
such manner as is most pleasing to himself; and 
this will in the end always be found the cheapest 
mode of living. I might add that no Universi- 
ties in Europe, except those in England, assume 
the responsibility of providing for the residence 



127 

and board of students, and no others are one half 
so expensive. This expensiveness moreover, 
does not resuh at all from the high price of tuition 
in Oxford and Cambridge, for this is by no means 
excessive ; but merely from the costliness of gen- 
eral living which such a system necessarily en- 
genders. 

J am of the opinion therefore that no particular 
advantage accrues to the student himself so far as 
expense is concerned from this feature of our 
system. Let us ask whether it be economical to 
the community itself. I have already remarked 
that probably somewhat more than a million and a 
half of dollars have been invested in New England 
for the support and maintainence of Collegiate ed- 
ucation. In consequence of this part of our sys- 
tem, I suppose that probably twelve hundred 
thousand dollars of this sum has been expended 
upon bricks and mortar. If this be a necessary 
expense, no reasonable objection to it can be made, 
but, if otherwise, it is a most unfortunate niisap- 
plication of property. That it is not necessary, 
is I think evident from the fact that by far tlie 
greater number of institutions of learning through- 
out the world do without it. That it possesses no 
peculiar advantages is evident also from the fact 
that where this plan is adopted, the expenses of 
an education are peculiarly great, and the students 
are not particularly moral. It would seem then, 
at the best, a matter of doubtful expediency. 

But let us take another view of the subject. 



128 

Suppose that this plan had never been adopted, 
and that the funds thus expended had been appro- 
priated to the partial (and I would have it no 
more than partial) endowment of professorships, 
to the purchase of libraries and instruments of 
philosophical investigation and illustration ; and 
that this being done, each professor had been 
at liberty to render his course as valuable as 
possible, reaping from his diligence and talent the 
reward to which he was entitled ; I think that e very- 
one must be convinced that our Colleges and 
Universities would have attained to a rank very 
different from that which tiiey now hold. At 
present, almost all that these institutions have to 
exhibit is, a series of buildings for the residence of 
young men. It would not be difficult to show 
among us Colleges which have expended a hun- 
dred thousand dollars in buildings, and yet are al- 
most entirely destitute of even the rudiments of a 
library or a philosopliical apparatus. Had the funds 
thus employed been devoted to furnishing the mate- 
riel of Education instead of that of residence, we 
should at this moment have been in the possession 
of libraries that would vie with those of many 
European institutions. As it is, we have in this 
country scarcely any thing that can be called 
a library. The means do not exist among us 
for writing a book, which in Europe would be 
called learned, on almost any subject whatever. 
I cannot but believe that our destitution in this res- 
pect is to be ascribed in a great degree to this 
part of our Collegiate system. 



I go still farther. I apply the same principles 
to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. I 
have walked over the grounds of Trinity and St. 
Johns College, Cambridge ; I have admired the 
unsurpassed beauty of Kings College Chapel ; I 
have stood beneath the elms of Magdalen College, 
Oxford, and surveyed the magnificence which 
crowds upon the eye as it turns in every direction 
upon that '*^ city of palaces ;" and as I entered 
quadrangle after quadrangle of the inimitable edi- 
fices that meet the gaze of the traveller at every 
turn, a sinking despair has come over my spirit 
when I reflected that no such glorious yet solemn 
loveliness would ever greet the eye of man in the 
land of my birth. It is done, and let it ever 
remain. Never would I willingly see an angle 
defaced, or suffer a buttress or a tower, or even an 
uncouth ornament to moulder away. It is all sa- 
cred to the past, and it should be kept forever in- 
violate. But when I reflect that this expenditure, 
if otherwise appropriated, would have given to 
Great Britain twenty Universities instead of two, 
each one offering to the student as ample means 
of mental cultivation as are enjoyed at present ; and 
would have also provided such means of education 
for the poor as would have rendered every native 
born Englishman a well educated man, I am 
constrained to say that never was a taste for 
architectural beauty gratified at so costly a price. 
A magnificent edifice is a delightful object of con- 
templation , yet I know not that to the philosopher or 
philanthropist it is aught more delightful, than the 



130 

spectacle of a whole people cultivated to the 
highest degree of intelligence, free and indepen- 
dent, moving forward the pioneer of our race in 
the march of civilization, and scattering broadcast 
upon the nations "the benefits of knowledge and 
the blessings of religion." — 

I might here allude to the bearing upon instruc- 
tors of this part of our system. It would be 
easy to show that it imposes obligations upon 
officers which they have no means of adequately 
discharging ; that, if these duties are discharged 
faithfully they must of necessity consume a large 
portion of their time and attention, and greatly 
interfere with their opportunities of self-improve- 
ment ; and, that if discharged negligently, great 
irregularity of habits and loss of character among 
their pupils must be the necessary result ; but these 
points I willingly pass over. The question is one 
of too grave and universal importance to allow of 
the consideration of individual inconveniences or 
even individual sacrifices. Still, it is worthy of 
consideration, that no system is congruous to 
human nature in which public and private interest 
do not blend in harmony. If we require self 
sacrificing duty and ofier but small remuneration, 
we can expect to engage the services of such men 
only as have but little to sacrifice. Things, in the 
long run, will always find their level ; and, de- 
ceive ourselves as we may, we rarely find that, 
with all our shrewdness, we can purchase an 
article worth more than we pay for it. 

From these considerations I have been led to 



131 

doubt the wisdom of our present system, in re- 
spect to residence and discipline. I cannot per- 
ceive its advantages so clearly as most persons 
who are interested in Collegiate education, and I 
seem to myself to foresee advantages in a change, 
which others may not so readily admit. I may 
perhaps be permitted to add, that these views are 
the result of considerable experience. A large 
portion of my life has been spent within the walls 
of a College. I do not think that in any situation 
the lines could have fallen to me in pleasanter 
places. The relation which I have held with the 
gendemen with whom I have had the honor to be 
associated in office, has generally been of the 
most interesting character. From the young gen- 
tlemen whom it has been my happiness to instruct, 
I have received demonstrations of regard beyond 
my deserts as they were beyond my expectations ; 
and I feel, at this moment, that I can number 
them, scattered as they are over our country, as 
my personal friends. I can cheerfully bear testi- 
mony to their general diligence, good conduct 
and honorable bearing. I am influenced in offer- 
ing these remarks therefore by no disgust at the 
profession in which so large a portion of my life 
has been spent. But having devoted myself to 
the office of an instructor, I feel bound to offer 
these suggestions, I hope with the sole motive of 
being useful to the cause of education. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OF SOME PREVALENT ERRORS IN REGARD TO COLLEGIATE 
EDUCATION. 

I HAVE thus far considered the system of Col- 
legiate education by itself, and have endeavored 
to point out those of its defects which seem to me 
to stand most in need of correction. I beg leave 
now to direct the attention of those who have had 
the perseverance to follow me thus far, to some 
prevalent misconceptions on the subject, which 
need only to be understood, in order to be aban- 
doned. 

The first of these which I shall consider, is 
the cost of Collegiate education in this country. 
It is by many persons believed to be dear. We 
are continually reminded by all the friends of Col- 
leges that it will never do to increase our expenses. 
College education, it is said, must be cheap, or a 
College cannot be sustained. If a new branch 
of study is to be introduced, or an additional in- 
structor to be appointed, or any improvement is 
suggested, we are told to go on by all means, if 
the change would be advantageous, only taking 
care that the education shall not cost any more. 
And I think that I do not greatly mistake in assert- 



13S 

ing that in the larger number of instances parents de- 
cide upon the institution to which their sons are 
to be sent, rather by the cheapness of the educa- 
tion, than by any other fact in the case. And 
hence it is that to most of the annual cata- 
logues of Colleges is appended a statement of ex- 
penses including not only the cost of tuition, board 
and lodging, but also of fuel, lights, washing, and I 
know not how many other et ceteras. By a com- 
parison of these, a parent or student can easily 
learn which is the cheapest College ; and as all 
lead to the same degree, that is, all confer the 
right to attach the same letters to the graduates' 
name, that which is the least expensive, has the 
best prospect of success. 

Let us then inquire what is meant when we 
affirm that an article is cheap. 

If we turn our attention to any article but edu- 
cation, we can answer the question in a moment. 
When a product is brought into the market, and 
we know the cost of its creation, and ascertain 
that the price merely pays the cost of investment, 
labor and interest, and yields to the producer the 
ordinary^ rate of remuneration, we say that it is as 
cheap as it can be afforded. If it be sold for a less 
price, the producer must be ruined. If it yield 
an extravagant remuneration, it is dear, and we 
know that so long as capital and labor are free, it 
will be by competition brought down to the average 
profit of other investments. 

And still more, every one is aware that by no 
possible shrewdness can we permanently keep an 



134 

article below the cost of its production. We 
may, if we choose, declare that we will not give 
more than half the price which we hav^e formerly 
given. But this will not in any manner alter the 
case. The producer cannot be induced to give 
away the half of his product. If it cannot be 
brought to market at our price, he will cease to pro- 
duce it and we must do with out it ; or else, as is 
more probable, he will make use of a cheaper 
and less valuable material, employ less skillful 
workmen, and produce an article which will af- 
ford him a reasonable profit at our arbitrary prices. 
"We get it for a less sum, but we get it no cheap- 
er ; we pay a low price for a poor article, and have 
laid out our money in spite of ourselves at a de- 
cided disadvantage. 

These principles are exceedingly obvious, and 
they apply as truly to the case of College Educa- 
tion as to any other. The natural price of such 
education would be estimated as follows. We 
should first estimate the amount of capital invested 
in buildings, libraries, apparatus, and charge upon 
.this sum the ordinary rate of interest. We should 
add to this, the salaries of professors and other 
teachers at the rate of remuneration ordinarily 
earned by persons employed in similar labor. 
These two items added together, would form the 
cost of College education ; and if nothing more 
were charged, the article would be furnished at its 
natural price. It would be cheap just in propor- 
tion as the sum charged fell short of these amounts. 

What now are the facts in this case ? The 



135 

whole amount invested in grounds, buildings and 
libraries, is almost actually sunk ; that is, it is 
either given to the public outright, or else it is 
made to pay but a very small rate of interest. In 
a College, for instance, with which I am acquaint- 
ed, the property of the Institution, inlands, build- 
ings, &c., is probably worth one hundred and fifty 
thousand dollars. The interest of this sum would 
be nine thousand dollars per year. The whole 
amount paid for the use of it by the students is 
about eighteen hundred dollars, or less than two 
per cent. And it is to be remarked that out of 
this sum is to be deducted all the expenses neces- 
sary for important repairs. I presume that the 
College does not receive for this property much 
more than the nett sum of one per cent. This is 
certainly as cheap a rate as could be demanded. 
For the use of this property and the labors of its 
professors, the College receives of the students 
about seven thousand five hundred dollars. That 
is, for the use of its buildings and means of educa- 
tion, together with the labors of eight officers, it 
receives fifteen hundred dollars less than it could 
obtain from this property alone at the ordinary 
rate of interest. In fact were the property to be 
sold and the purchase money invested, it could 
pay a larger salary than at present to its officers, 
and give away their labors without a cent of remu- 
neration. 

Were this all, it would be sufficient to establish 
the truth of what I have asserted. But this is not 
all. Most Colleges are in possession of funds to 



136 

a considerable amount. In some cases the funds 
are large. But whether large or small they are com- 
monly given to the public, that is they are appro- 
priated either to the support of indigent students, 
or else they are applied to the several purposes of 
the institution, that is, to the payment of instruc- 
tors. In this latter case they reduce the price of 
tuition to the whole public to precisely the amount 
of their value. In the College to which I have 
alluded, fifteen hundred dollars annually are appro- 
priated to this purpose. To how great an ^extent 
these remarks apply to other Colleges I am not 
competent to say, but I know that in spirit they 
apply to all. Whatever means the College may 
possess are always appropriated upon the same 
principle, and with the same design, to reduce, as 
far as possible, the price of tuition. I ask any 
one in the least acquainted with political economy 
whether there be any thing in the market as cheap 
as College education. 

But this is not all. I have thus far only stated 
that the investment in College education is almost 
entirely given to the public. The next item of 
cost is the salaries of teachers. I will now add 
that I beheve that the instructors of Colleges in 
this country, are remunerated, at a lower rate 
than almost any other professional men. ^ I 
know but very few who are competent to their situ- 
ation, who might not earn a larger compensation 
in any other profession. That this is the case, is 
manifest from the fact that few young men with 
fair prospects before them can be ever induced to 



137 

leave their profession for any office that a College 
can offer. It is my impression that professorships 
in New England Colleges vary from six hun- 
dred to twelve hundred dollars per annum. And 
I ask, what inducements could such an income 
offer to a lawyer, physician, or a elegy man, who 
had only even begun to take rank in his profession. 
And besides this, it is to be remarked that this sala- 
ry can very rarely be increased by any efforts 
of the incumbent. As it is in youth so must he 
expect it to be in age. It holds out before him 
the cheerless prospect of circumstances becoming 
with every year narrower, terminating at last in 
death which leaves his widow and children, pen- 
nyless. 

But the officers of Colleges are not only under- 
paid, if we compare them with men of other pro- 
fessions ; they are underpaid if compared with 
private instructors. In any of our large towns a 
private instructor who is competent to his place 
receives a handsome remuneration ; a remuneration 
I presume frequently twice as great as that re- 
ceived by the professors in the nearest College 
in his vicinity. The price of tuition in a classi- 
cal day school, in any of our cities is twice or 
three times as great as that demanded by Colleges. 
That is, for the labors of six or eight competent 
men, you pay but half or one third as much as 
you pay for the labors of one man. In the one 
case you require the instructor to be responsible 
for the conduct of the pupil for the whole four 
years ; in the other you require of him attendance 



138 

only during the hours of study and assume the 
other responsibihty yourself, in the one case you 
have the advantage of a very large investment al- 
most for nothing, in the other no investment is re- 
quired except the rent of a convenient room or 
two for the purposes of study and recitation. If 
this be the case it must appear evident either that 
the instructors of Colleges are greatly underpaid 
or else that they are exceedingly unfit for their 
offices. But whether fit or unfit, whether the ar- 
ticle which they furnish be good, bad or indifferent, 
no one reflecting on these facts can for a moment 
doubt of its cheapness. It is, I have no doubt, 
afforded to the public at from half to one third of 
its cost, while the cost itself is reduced from twen- 
ty-five to fifty per cent, below the ordinary wages 
of similar labor. 

To a person whose attention has not been at- 
tracted to this subject, all this may seem strange ; 
but I am persuaded that I have not spoken in the 
language of exaggeration. I have never convers- 
ed on this subject with a gentleman at all acquaint- 
ed with active business, who was not surprised at 
the low rate of College expenses. Parents have 
assured me that they were obliged to send their 
sons to College because they could not afford to 
bring them up in a good counting house. For the 
reasons which I have given, a liberal education 
for a son, is much less expensive than a corres- 
ponding education for a daughter. And in a word, 
it not unfrequently happens that a young man of 
industrious and frugal habits, who enters College, 



139 



with nothing more than one or two hundred dol- 
lars, by laboring in vacations, and sometimes by 
devoting an intermediate year to teaching, will 
graduate without being in debt, and will in a year 
or two obtain a situation more lucrative than that 
of most of his instructors. Where this is the 
case I think there can no complaint be made of 
the dearness of a Collegiate education. 

I have treated this part of the subject at greater 
length than I intended, because I think it needs to 
be understood. I am desirous that this whole 
matter should be examined ; and I am satisfied 
that such an examination will result in the general 
conviction that Collegiate education is not only 
cheap, but that it is too cheap for the good of ed- 
ucation. I am sure that every one who reflects 
upon the subject, will be convinced that the in- 
structors of Colleges should be remunerated with 
a larger salary, or else be placed in circumstances 
in which they may be more able to benefit them- 
selves by the exercise of their talents. If we pay 
for nothing but moderate capacity, we shall em- 
ploy nothing but moderate capacity. And woe be 
to the cause of Collegiate education when it falls 
into the hands of third or fourth rate men. I hope 
that I have made it evident that College education 
in this country is cheap enough, so cheap that no 
one can reasonably complain of it on that score. 
I proceed then to examine another opinion inti- 
mately connected with this idea of cheapness. 

It is frequently said that this is a republic, here 
we are all equal, the avenues to distinction are, and 



140 

of right ought to be, open to all ; every man wheth- 
er poor or rich, of whatever occupation, should 
have the opportunity of improving himself to the 
utmost ; this is demanded by the nature of our in- 
stitutions, and it is important to success in the arts 
as well as necesLsary to the full development of the 
universal mind. To all this I fully agree. It is 
the expression of my own long cherished senti- 
ments. I would foster these ideas to the utmost 
of my ability, and I wish that they were universal- 
ly diffused and universally acted upon. I have 
here only to remark upon the bearing which they 
have upon the present question. 

1. It is granted that it would be very desirable 
to establish means, for the improvement in science 
and the arts, of all classes of the community. I 
think it desirable that it should be furnished, in 
many cases, I care not if in all, gratuitously. 
But I ask if you are about to make a present to 
your neighbor, is this any reason why you should 
not pay for it. If you wish to give away educa- 
tion, is this any reason why instructors should not 
be as well recompensed as other men. It would 
certainly be an ambiguous charity to oblige your 
neighbor to furnish you with his goods at half price 
because you intended to give them away. Or on 
the other hand, if you really desire to afford the 
means of improvement to every citizen, is it wise 
to pay for his instruction so small a price that the 
education which he receives is worthless ; so 
worthless that he will not receive it as a gratuity. 
Look at our common school system in New Eng- 



141 

land. Here we offer to all the means of obtaining 
a common English education. It is all, in some 
sense, given away. But is this ever considered as 
a reason why the instructors should be under- 
paid. And still further ; where instructors in our 
schools have been poorly paid, it has been univer- 
sally acknowledged to be bad economy ; the schools 
have been badly attended, badly taught, and in ill 
favor with the public ; on the contrary, where in- 
structors have received sufficient remuneration, 
good men have been without difficulty employ- 
ed ; schools by a change of this kind, have 
been doubled and almost trebled in numbers, and 
the system has at once received the favor of the 
public. If therefore, it be granted that the 
good of the whole requires the means of education 
to be open to all, it by no means follows either 
that teachers should be underpaid, or that the edu- 
cation should be rendered of but little value, by 
driving from the profession those who are by talent 
and discipline, capable of conferring the greatest 
benefits upon the community. 

But let us examine this argument in another 
point of light. It is asserted that it is important 
to present to all men in every rank of life the 
means of full mental development — and therefore, 
that Collegiate education must be reduced to the 
extremest^degree of cheapness. I grant the premi- 
ses but I deny the conclusion. 

If it be desirable to furnish the means of intel- 
lectual development to all, and I believe it to be 
so, then it follows that we should provide the 



142 

means of this intellectual culture, either by private 
munificence or public endowment. I know of but 
one instance in this country in which this has been 
done, and that is the instance of the Institution in 
Boston so nobly endowed by the late Mr. Lowell. 
By the will of that distinguished benefactor of his 
native city, a provision has been made for the gra- 
tuitous delivery of courses of Lectures to the citi- 
zens of Boston on the most important branches of 
Science. The design has been carried out ac- 
cording to the intention of the testator, and with 
the most triumphant success. The ablest talent of 
New England, and even of Europe, has been se- 
cured for this service, and the lectures have been 
attended by thronged audiences which have filled 
one of the largest rooms in the city. The benefit 
which this charity will confer upon the citizens of 
Boston in awakening the slumbering intellect, in 
stimulating the active mind to more zealous inqui- 
ry, and in binding together in one, all the different 
classes of society will be incalculable. And 
I think I may add that the success of this ex- 
periment has arisen in no small degree from the 
tact that the institution has been conducted on prin- 
ciples analogous to those which I have suggested. 
Listead of frittering away the means at his disposal 
by creating a large amount of tolerably good in- 
struction, the gentleman under whose control the 
bequest has been placed, has determined to render 
it as valuable as this or any other country could 
supply. The lecture room has become a centre of 
universal attraction. How different would have 



143 



been the result, had courses of inferior lectures 
been delivered in every school district in the city. 
No one would have accepted the gift, for no one 
would have thought it worth his acceptance, and 
the whole charity would have been a failure. 

I say then that granting the importance of pro- 
viding means of intellectual cultivation for all the 
community the only inference from the assumption 
is that such means ought to be provided. I hope 
the time will come when all our large towns as 
well as our cities will be thus endowed. But I 
say that Colleges are not at present such insti- 
tutions ; they are at present merely schools prepar- 
atory to entrance upon some one of the professions. 
Whether therefore tuition be cheap or dear, the 
argument stated above can have no reference to 
them. Whether it be cheap or dear, the College 
as at present constituted, can be of no service 
to those classes of the community referred to in the 
argument. 

I say a College with us is not an establi^iTmen^-- 
for the instruction of any one in whatever he 
pleases, but for instruction in a particular course, 
and that in consequence of its forming an isolated 
society it naturally repels from its association 
all who are not engaged in similar pursuits. 
Now this being the case the question at once 
arises, is there any reason why the public should 
make a special effort merely to increase the 
number of professional men. If a man wishes 
to pursue one profession rather than another, 
or to change the profession which he has already 



144 

chosen, he has a perfect right to do so. But is he 
therefore an object of charity ? Are we in 
special need of recruits to fill the ranks of the pro- 
fessions ? Or still more, because he wishes to 
enter a profession is it desirable in order to accom- 
modate him that we reduce the price of tuition in 
such a manner as to render the tuition itself of 
small value not only to him but to all the rest of 
the community. 

But it will doubtless be asked why should not 
these means of general improvement be con- 
nected with Collegiate establishments. Why 
should not professors in Colleges deliver courses 
of lectures which would be attractive to the whole 
community ; and why should not the means which 
are at present available to a part be made availa- 
ble to the whole ? I answer at once, I see no 
reason whatever why it should not be so. I 
think that such an arrangement would be a great 
benefit to the officers, the College, and the com- 
munity. It would open to the instructor a wide 
and attractive field of professional exertion. It 
would enlist in favor of the College all the sym- 
pathies of the public, and it would spread before 
the whole people such means for intellectual 
improvement as the necessities or tastes of each 
individual might demand. 

I am aware that in order to accomplish this 
result some changes must be effected in our 
College system, and if this instruction is to be 
gratuitous, additional professorships must be en- 
dowed. The professor must be relieved from 



145 



much of the pohce duty which devolves upon 
him at present. A variety of courses of instruc- 
tion must be provided for, which do not enter into 
our present arrangements. But I see no insuper- 
able difficulty in devising a plan which might meet 
the exigency, specially if such changes should be 
introduced into our system as I have elsewhere 
suggested. It is not, however, my intention to 
enter upon the discussion of this subject. My 
object is merely to show that the importance of 
the diffusion of valuable knowledge only teaches 
us that means for accomplishing so desirable an 
object should be provided ; that it does not apply 
to Colleges which are merely professional schools ; 
or that if it apply to them at all, it merely 
goes to prove that they might confer a much 
wider benefit upon the community were they ena- 
bled to modify their present system and greatly 
enlarge their foundations. 

But it will here be asked, what is to be done 
for our students for the ministry, if the expenses 
of Colleges are increased. How shall the churches 
of our land be supplied with pastors. I answer 
first, if the ministry be adequately supported, and 
duly sustained, there will be no difficulty in this 
respect. We shall surely confer no benefit on the 
ministry by hiring men to enter it, by the promise 
of an education, and then keeping them in pov- 
erty for the rest of their lives. I answer again, 
this is a question respecting general education, and 
is therefore to be judged of upon its own merits. 
If our arrangements for the education of the 
10 



146 

ministry are at variance with the general advance- 
ment of the community, our arrangements must be 
changed. If we wish to educate a young man 
for the ministry, there is no reason why we should 
not pay that price for his education which shall se- 
cure the best instruction both to him and to every 
one else. To do otherwise would be to inflict 
an injury both upon ourselves and upon the 
public. In a word, when we are deliberating upon 
a plan for the intellectual improvement of the 
whole community, let us keep that object simply 
and steadily in view, and we may be assured that 
if the good of the whole be promoted the good 
of the part cannot be neglected. 

I had intended in this place to inquire into 
the tendencies of the present system of ministe- 
nal education and trace out the probable results 
of creating a general fund, (as is the case with 
education societies,) for the use of all persons who 
are willing to prepare for the sacred office ; and 
also to inquire into the expediency of multiplying 
Colleges, as they have of late been multiplied by 
all the religious sects. I have supposed it easy to 
show that from this latter cause, the supply of 
professional education has far outrun the demand, 
and, as in every similar case, led to what may 
be cahed, for the want of a better name, under- 
bidding each other ; and that it has thrown the 
responsibility of their support, not on the results 
of their own labor, but on the charities of the 
sect by which they have been established. But 
all this I willingly waive. I fear that many of 



147 



these benevolent efforts will prove monuments 
rather of the charity than the wisdom of the 
present generation. As however this topic does 
not fall directly within the range of the present 
undertaking, I cheerfully leave the discussion of 
it to others. 

In answer to all that I have said. I am perfectly 
aware that it may be urged that I am recommend- 
ing dear instead of cheap education ; that I wish 
to restrict the number of educated men ; and that 
all this is at variance with the nature of our insti- 
tutions. To the suggestion I can only reply 
that I can conceive of no motive which should 
induce an American citizen either to entertain 
or to promulgate such an opinion. As to the 
charge of wishing to render education dear, I reply 
in the first place that nothing that I have said is, so 
far as I know, chargable with this inference. It 
has been commonly taken for granted that our first 
and most important business is to make educa- 
tion cheap. This assumption I have denied and 
on the contrary have asserted that our most im- 
portant business is to make it good ; that its 
goodness is our first concern, and its cheapness 
only secondary ; and that by seeking first of all 
to render it cheap we were in danger of render- 
ing it useless. 

But this is not all, I have endeavored to show 
that by multiplying Colleges, and spending so 
large an amount of our funds in buildings, we have 
rendered our means for the reduction of the 
price of tuition almost useless. I also believe 



143 

that another system might be adopted which by- 
attracting a greater number of students, and stim- 
ulating teachers to greater energy and efficiency, 
would attract higher talent to the professional 
chair ; without in the least increasing the expenses 
of each individual pupil. What I propose then 
in this respect, may be briefly summed up as 
follows: Let the education in our Colleges and 
Universities be exact, generous and thorough ; 
let it be rendered capable of improvement, and let 
it be for the interest of all connected it with to im- 
prove it, whether it cost more or less than at 
present ; And secondly let it be rendered as cheap 
as is consistent with goodness ; and still more, 
let provision be made either in connexion with 
Colleges or independently of them, for the wide 
dissemination of knowledge in science and the 
arts ; and let this knowledge be of the very best 
description which American scholarship can sup- 
ply. Such are in few words ray sentiments on 
this subject, and I hope that I have not uttered any 
thing at variance with them. 

I close this chapter with one other remark ; it 
is upon the commonly received notion that a 
course of education must be popular. If by 
being popular it is meant that it must follow every 
whim of the day, and introduce or discard 
studies because for the time being they may be in 
vogue or out of it ; if it be meant that our course 
of discipline must change at the will of every 
popular convention which may endorse the theo- 
retical notions of an educational reformer, I must 



149 

be permitted to live a little longer in doubt of the 
assertion. If it however be meant that it must 
commend itself to the good sense and patriotism 
of the American people, I assent to it most cor- 
dially. Nothing which is not popular in this 
sense can be or ought to be sustained. But in 
order to secure this kind of popularity, we must 
strive to render education good. We must adopt 
our plans not only for the present but for the fu- 
ture ; we must honestly strive to render our whole 
course of higher education as valuable and as 
universally available as possible. We must not 
only do this but we must spread before the pub- 
lic our reasons for so doing and explain the man- 
ner in which we intend to accomplish it. I do 
most honestly believe that by so doing we shall 
carry the whole community with us. If we would 
be popular let us remember that we can never 
attain our end by aiming at it directly. The ap- 
probation of our fellow citizens will in the end be 
conferred not on those who desire to please 
them, but on those, who honestly do them good. 
Popularity is valuable when it follows us, not when 
we run after it ; and he is most sure of attaining it, 
who, caring nothing about it, honestly and in sim- 
plicity, and kindness earnestly labors to render his 
fellow men wiser, and happier, and better. 



CHAPTER V. 

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 

I HAVE thus considered at considerable length, 
some of the most important points of our present 
Collegiate system. Unless I have been greatly 
deceived I have shown that this system calls 
for serious revision ; if we desire that it should 
be adapted to the existing wants of the commu- 
nity. 

I propose in these few concluding remarks to 
review briefly the points which I suppose to call 
most loudly for attentive consideration. I beg 
leave, however, to repeat what I have often stated 
before, that I only present these topics as matters 
for consideration. I by no means suppose it prac- 
ticable, or even wise were it practicable, to trans- 
form all our Colleges at once, in order to conform 
them to the plans which I have indicated. There 
is a demand for a change in our Collegiate system. 
Changes are from time to time effected, without 
as it would seem, any great practical improvement. 
My object is simply to point out the objects at 
which we should aim in our attempts at change. 
If it should seem that in any respects I have in- 
dicated the direction in which we should move, 



151 

let US move in that direction. If I have illustrated 
the evils under which we labor, let us strive to re- 
move them. If I have totally failed in this at- 
tempt, let some one better qualified accomplish 
the task more successfully. But at any rate, let 
us have the object which we desire to attain placed 
full in our own' view, and in the view of the wliole 
community ; and let us all labor for its accom- 
plishment, sincerely, earnestly and harmoniously. 
In this manner alone, can we hope to improve the 
condition of higher education throughout our 
country. 

1 . / begin then with the Corporations^ or Boards 
of Visitors^ in our Colleges. On them devolves, in 
truth, the incipient action which shall effect this 
whole subject. They are the appointed guardians 
of education. In them is vested the whole power 
of ordering, directing and governing the institutions 
of higher learning. They hold . all the funds 
appropriated ehher by private or public munifi- 
cence to the purpose of elevating the standard of 
knowledge in the youth of our country. They 
appoint and remove ofiicers, fix the rate and man- 
ner of their compensation, ordain the studies to be 
pursued, and on them it is devolved to see that 
the designs of the public or the founder are car- 
ried into effect. This power can be exercised by 
no other person whatever. So long as they hold 
their office, no one else can act in the premises, 
without usurpation. If they do not act according 
to their solemn promises, no action can be had. 
Such being their power and their responsibility. 



152 

I beg leave most respectfully to remind them of 
their duty. Unless they make themselves ac- 
quainted with the subject of education, unless they 
will devote to the proper duties of their office a por- 
tion of their time, unless they will assume the re- 
sponsibiHty which must be incurred by efficient ac- 
tion, unless in a word they will make an earnest 
effort to improve^^ the present system of education^ 
on them a charge of grave dereliction of duty will 
rest. If, as is doubdess in many instances the 
case, their organization is imperfect, it may be 
modified. If the duties to be discharged are 
onerous, they may be divided among them. In 
the officers of Colleges, they will, I am convinced, 
find ready and active coadjutors. If these two 
principal agents in the Collegiate system seriously 
undertake a revision of its fundamental principles, 
I am convinced that they will confer a most im- 
portant benefit on the community. It is in their 
power to extend the blessings of higher education 
very widely among all classes of our fellow citi- 
zens, and also render education incomparably 
more valuable than it has ever been in this country. 
But the work must commence with the visitors. 
To them it properly appertains. They owe it to 
the public to whom they are responsible. They 
owe it to the rising youth of our country, who in 
this respeci, are placed specially under their pupil- 
lage. They owe it to their God who has com- 
mitted to their charge so solemn a responsibility, 
and placed in their hands in no small degree,^ the 
destinies of this great republic. I cannot believe 



153 

for a moment that they wiJl be recreant to so 
grave and important a trust. 

2. Of the Organization of our Colleges. Our 
Colleges as I have already remarked are at present 
scarcely any thing more than schools for the 
education of young men for the professions. So 
long as we continue the present organization 
they can be no other. While we construct our 
system for this purpose and adhere to a regular 
gradation of classes and prescribed studies for 
each, we may make what changes we please, 
but the regular course will control every other. 
But while we have made our College course a 
mere preparation for professionsal education, we 
have so crowded it with studies as to render it 
superficial and probably less valuable for its 
particular purpose than it was originally. I 
am not sure that we are not already suffering 
from the effect of the course which we have 
pursued. I rather fear that the impression is 
gaining ground that this preparation is not essen- 
tial to success in professional study. A large 
proportion of our medical students are not gradu- 
ates. The proportion of law students of the 
same class is, I rather think, increasing. The pro- 
portion of students for the ministry who resort to 
College is much larger than formerly. This is 
owing in no small degree, to the aid of education 
societies. What would be the case if this aid 
were out of the question, I am unable to determine. 
If these things be so, it would seem that while we 
have been restricting our Collegiate education to 



1-54 

one class, its value by that class is less and less 
appreciated. 

But while this is the case, in consequence of 
this unintentional restriction, a very large class of 
our people have been deprived of all participation 
in the benefits of higher education. It has been 
almost impossible in this country, for the mer- 
chant, the mechanic, the manufacturer, to educate 
his son, beyond the course of a common academy 
unless he gave him the education preparatory for 
a profession. This was not the education which 
he wanted, and of course, his son has been de- 
prived: of the cultivation which the parent was 
able and wilHng to bestow. Now the class of so- 
ciety that is thus left unprovided for, constitutes 
the bone and sinew, the very choicest portion of 
this or of any community. They are the great 
agents of a production, they are the safest depos- 
itories of political power. It is their will, that, in 
the end, sways the destinies of the nation. It is 
of the very highest importance, on every account, 
that this portion of a people should possess every 
facility for the acquisition of knowledge and intel- 
lectual discipline. Nothing would tend so much 
to the progress of wealth among us as the diffu- 
sion throughout the whole people of a knowledge 
of the principles of science, and the application 
of science to the arts. And besides, a knowl- 
edge of moral and intellectual philosophy, of the 
fundamental principles of law, of our own consti- 
tution, of history, of vegetable and animal physi- 
ology, and of many other sciences is just as ne- 



155 

cessaiy and just as appropriate to the merchant, 
the manufacturer, the mechanic, and the farmer, 
as to the lawyer, the clergyman, or the physician. 
Why should it be supposed that all higher knowl- 
edge should be engrossed exclusively by the pro- 
fessions. If a man wishes to give his son a good 
education why should he be obliged to make him 
a lawyer, a physician, or a clergyman. Why 
should not the highest intellectual endowment, 
cultivated by the best preparatory discipline be 
found in every mode of occupation. And if this 
be so why has this whole subject been so long 
neglected among us. Is it not time that our sys- 
tem should in this matter undergo a complete and 
radical revision. 

What I would propose on this subject then is 
briefly as follows. In the first place let the 
course preparatory to a profession be distinctly 
marked out and let it be generous and thorough. 
Let it embrace such branches of study as are par- 
ticularly necessary for fitting men for the profess- 
ions, and let it be carried on to such an extent as 
shall communicate enlarged and generous knowl- 
edge, and vigorous mental discipline. But while 
this is done let our system be so enlarged in its 
provisions that the means of education in other 
branches may be open to all who choose to avail 
themselves of them. Let there be established 
courses of lectures on all the subjects which I 
have specified, and as many more as may be ne- 
cessary, to which men of all classes may resort. 
Let there be no compulsory residence, let every 



156 



man come by ticket, and let him be admitted to 
every privilege which the nature of the case de- 
mands. In a word let the College be the grand 
centre of intelligence to all classes and conditions 
of men, diffusing among all the light of every kind 
of knowledge, and approving itself to the best feel- 
ings of every class of the community. Let it, 
besides being a preparatory school to the profess- 
ions, be a Lowell Listitute to the region in which 
it is placed. I know of nothing that would tend 
so strongly to promote the growth of wealth and 
civilization and refinement among us. Nothing 
would so surely annihilate that division of the com- 
munity into classes, which, already, in spite of our 
democratic institutions, threatens the direst evils 
to our republic. 

3. Of the Officers of Colleges. I have in the 
preceding pages endeavored to set forth the evils 
of our present organization in this respect. I would 
suggest the importance of opening our professor- 
ships to a freer competition, so that the College 
may have the benefit of a choice from all the tal- 
ent that is willing to employ itself in the profes- 
sion of instruction. Besides this I would have the 
emolument of every professor so adjusted that he 
shall feel directly the results of his diligence and 
ability, or of his indolence and inefficiency. There 
can be no reason why a teacher in College should 
not be placed under the same inducements to labor 
as any other man. Li no other way can we ex- 
pect him to devote his whole talent with earnest- 
ness to his profession. On no other principles 



157 



can we expect the cause of education to be sus- 
tained with the vigor and efficiency which its im- 
portance so clearly demands. 

If it be said that this is impracticable, then there 
are other means which must be resorted to. The 
College must be placed under close and active su- 
pervision. The board of visitors must annually 
examine its condition, and without fear, favor or 
affection, remove from time to time, every unsuit- 
able incumbent. This would accomplish the same 
result in another way, but it would be an onerous, 
an unpleasant and an odious duty. It is better to 
construct the system in such manner, that an ineffi- 
cient officer would have no desire to remain, than 
to make the place desirable for him and then dis- 
place him by an arbitrary act. 

4. Of the Discipline of our Colleges. I have 
endeavored to show that our discipline is too 
lax for the young, and unnecessarily strict for 
the older students. Two methods would present 
themselves for relieving this embarrassment. The 
one is to admit no student until he had attained to 
the age of self government, and then leave him to 
his own responsibility. The other would be to 
admit the young, but place them under stricter su- 
pervision. I think that either plan would have ad- 
vantages over our present system. How far such 
a change could be carried into effect, I must leave 
to the judgment of the officers of each particular 
institution. I am however well convinced that our 
Colleges would be greatly improved by raising the 
requirements of admission to the regular or pro- 



158 

fessional course so high that the student might be 
obhged to spend a year or two years longer in the 
grammar school. The studies of most of our 
Colleges during the first year, might be more suc- 
cessfully pursued in school under the eye of the 
instructor, than within the walls of an University. 
A change of this kind would be greatly for the ad- 
vantage both of the College, and of the grammar 
school. And if the plan which I have suggested 
were carried into effect, that is, if the advantages 
of the institution were thrown open to every class 
of society, this extension of the requirements 
might the more easily be enforced. There would 
be no crowding into the regular course, of those 
who enter merely for the sake of the benefit of 
particular studies, and who wish to graduate at the 
earliest practicable age. Their object could be 
accomplished more successfully in another way. 
Each course of instruction would stand on its own 
merits, and the object of the institution would be 
to render each one as perfect as the nature of the 
case would permit. 

On the subject of residence in College, I have 
already suggested an opinion It seems to me 
that in investing so large a portion of our funds in 
erecting domitories, we have committed an error. 
The funds have however been thus appropriated, 
and they cannot be recalled. Were the system 
of residence abandoned, these buildings could be 
of no use except for the residence of professors. 
If this part of our plan be injudicious, we can 
however cease to repeat our error. We can re- 



159 

frain from spending any more of our money in 
this manner. And we can, as opportunity occurs, 
try the experiment of allowing residence out of 
College. If it be found on a fair trial to succeed, 
it will at least demonstrate the important fact that 
a College or University can be established, with all 
the means of instruction which we now possess, at 
half or one third of the expense which it now in- 
volves. This will certainly be an important addi- 
tion to our knowledge on the subject. 

5. Of Premiums. I have alluded to the impor- 
tance of this mode of stimulants in a course of 
education. I will only add that I would extend 
the benefit of this incentive to every branch of 
knowledge taught by a College, not merely to the 
regular preparatory course, but to every other. 
Were this done, I am persuaded that a keen and 
honorable emulation would be excited among all 
classes of students. Prizes would be borne away 
by young men in every occupation. Mechanics, 
Farmers, Merchants and Manufacturers, would vie 
with their fellows preparing for the professions, 
and would as often be entitled to the distinction 
conferred upon merit. The effect of this upon 
all classes of the community would be incalculable, 
and I can conceive of no case in which it would 
not be beneficial. In this manner also, deserving 
young men of narrow means might be most ad- 
vantageously assisted. The prize, if in money, 
would materially reheve their wants, while instead 
of being bestowed as an alms, it would be con- 
ferred as a reward of merits ; instead of depressing 



160 

the recipient by proclaiming his poverty, it would 
distinguish him in the eyes of the community as 
one who had deserved well. I believe that if a 
large part of the funds appropriated in our Col- 
leges for the support of the indigent were distribu- 
ted in this manner, it would have the most benefi- 
cial effect upon the cause of education. 

Here T close these remarks which have, I fear, 
been already too far extended. It has been my 
lot to speak chiefly of the defects of our system of 
education. It would have been much more 
agreeable to treat of its excellencies, which I be- 
lieve to be great and manifold. To speak of 
these however, did not come within the scope of 
my design, which was merely to take notice of 
those things which need to be improved. The 
motive with which I have written, so far as I am 
conscious of it, has been to contribute my mite 
towards the improvement of higher education in 
our country. I offer it to the consideration of the 
public with unfeigned diffidence, in the humble 
hope that it may in a small degree contribute to 
the wider diffusion of intellectual cultivation among 
all classes of the community. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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